Extending the dynamic range can present much richer contrasts and physical information from the traditional low dynamic range (LDR) images. To tackle this, we propose a method to generate a high dynamic range image from a single LDR image. In addition, a technique for the matching between the histogram of a high dynamic range (HDR) image and the original image is introduced. To evaluate the results, we utilize the dynamic range for independent image quality assessment. It recognizes the difference in subtle brightness, which is a significant role in the assessment of novel lighting, rendering, and imaging algorithms. The results show that the picture quality is improved, and the contrast is adjusted. The performance comparison with other methods is carried out using the predicted visibility (HDR-VDP-2). Compared to the results obtained from other techniques, our extended HDR images can present a wider dynamic range with a large difference between light and dark areas.
Keywords: HDR image; LDR2HDR; extending HDR; tone-mapping.