A Pseudo Multi-Exposure Fusion Method Using Single Image

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to generate pseudo multi-exposure images from a single photograph, enabling enhanced image fusion without multiple captures, especially useful for dynamic scenes or existing single images.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel approach to produce pseudo multi-exposure images from a single image using exposure-pixel relationships and local contrast enhancement.

Findings

Effective pseudo multi-exposure images generated from single images.

Improved image quality with local contrast enhancement.

Comparable or superior to conventional multi-exposure fusion methods.

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel pseudo multi-exposure image fusion method based on a single image. Multi-exposure image fusion is used to produce images without saturation regions, by using photos with different exposures. However, it is difficult to take photos suited for the multi-exposure image fusion when we take a photo of dynamic scenes or record a video. In addition, the multi-exposure image fusion cannot be applied to existing images with a single exposure or videos. The proposed method enables us to produce pseudo multi-exposure images from a single image. To produce multi-exposure images, the proposed method utilizes the relationship between the exposure values and pixel values, which is obtained by assuming that a digital camera has a linear response function. Moreover, it is shown that the use of a local contrast enhancement method allows us to produce pseudo multi-exposure images with higher quality. Most of conventional multi-exposure image fusion methods are also applicable to the proposed multi-exposure images. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method by comparing the proposed one with conventional ones.