Bilateral Filter Based Compositing for Variable Exposure Photography

Abstract

Compositing a scene from multiple images is of considerable interest to graphics professionals. Typical compositing techniques involve estimation or explicit preparation of matte by an artist. In this article, we address the problem of automatic compositing of a scene from images obtained through variable exposure photography. We consider the High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI) problem and review some of the existing approaches for directly generating a Low Dynamic Range (LDR) image from multi-exposure images. We propose a computationally efficient method of scene compositing using edge-preserving filters such as bilateral filters. The key challenge is to composite the multi-exposure images in such a way so as to preserve details in both brightly and poorly illuminated regions of the scene within the limited dynamic range.