Corrected center-surround retinex: Application to tone reproduction for high dynamic range images

The tone reproduction is a convenient way of rendering a high dynamic range (HDR) image on the display device with a relatively low dynamic range. This paper proposes an algorithm for tone reproduction based on retinex theory. The proposed model mainly consists of a global adaptation and a local tone reproduction. The global tone mapping is applied to enhance the light variation according to the global ambience of the image. The local tone reproduction is accomplished by the corrected center-surround retinex model. Center-surround retinex theory is corrected with a proposed three-zone histogram theory, which clearly defines the meaning of the reflectance for the local tone reproduction. Next, the illumination map is constructed based on the three-zone histogram theory, while considering the local and global light scattering. Hence, the corrected center-surround retinex consults with not only the surrounding luminance of each pixel, but also the information of the overall histogram. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is robust for processing various HDR images and the resulting images are visually pleasing. The merit of the proposed algorithm lies in the balanced presentation of both the whole contrast and details in an image.