Performance Comparison of Uniform Color Spaces by Integrating into a Tone Mapping Operator

Typically, tone mapping operators are used to map luminance of high dynamic range (HDR) scenes to that of a displayable range. The goal of this study was to compare the performance of different uniform color spaces (CIELAB, ICTCP, and Jazbz) by integrating them into a tone mapping operator. The Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization-based Tone Mapping Operator (CLAHE-TMO) was used here. For this purpose, the HDR radiance map of a given scene was first constructed from multiple exposures of the scene captured by using an ordinary RGB camera. The radiance map was then transformed to a uniform color space for the application of TMO on its lightness channel. A psychophysical experiment was conducted using pair comparison method to compare performance of different uniform color spaces. Tone mapped images were compared in four different contexts: preference, naturalness, contrast, and texture details. The experimental results are reported here.