One of the primary motivations for the invention of photography was to address the problem of tone reproduction. i.e. the conversion of the wide range of luminances found in a scene to be captured to a much smaller range of viewing luminances such that the perceptual response of viewing the scene and the reproduction are as similar as possible. Over the past decade, this topic has been given a great deal of attention in the field of Computer Graphics since, during display of computer generated images, the same problem is encountered.
A majority of operators and algorithms developed for Computer Graphics have been based on perceptual models and studies with the goal of modeling human visual response to light. Others have been based more on photographic processes. The work presented in this talk falls in latter category. We approach the tone reproduction problem with the goal of reusing the knowledge of photographic tone reproduction processes that scientists and engineers in that area have spent a great deal of time and effort perfecting. Thus, rather than defining a tone reproduction operator based on the study of human perception, we define tone reproduction via simulation of the response of existing photographic media and processes. This is not to say that we ignore perceptual issues, instead, we recognize that human perception was well accounted for when these processes were developed.
In this talk, we present a general framework for the aforementioned simulation of media response. The components of a general image capture and viewing system based on existing media will be enumerated and described. Finally we will discuss means by which each of the components may be modeled in software for application on digital images.
Colloquia Series page.