Minimal-Bracketing Sets for High-Dynamic-Range Image Capture

Abstract--This paper considers the problem of high-dynamicrange (HDR) image capture using low-dynamic-range (LDR) cameras. We present three different minimal-bracketing algorithms for computing minimum-sized exposure sets bracketing of HDR scenes. Each algorithm is applicable to a different HDR-imaging scenario depending on the amount of target-sceneirradiance information and real-time image processing available at the time of image acquisition. We prove the optimality of each algorithm with respect to its ability to obtain a theoretically minimum-size bracketing set of exposures. We also provide closed-form expressions for computing minimal-bracketing exposure sets for two common types of HDR-imaging systems, those with geometrically-varying and arithmetically-varying exposure settings. We experimentally demonstrate the advantages of the proposed methods by capturing and processing multiple HDR scenes using minimal-bracketing and 1-stop bracketing methods. The results show that minima...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: TIP
• Authors: Neil Barakat, A. Nicholas Hone, Thomas E. Darcie
• Keywords: Bracketing, HDR Scenes, Images, TIP 2008