Provided by: pfstmo_2.1.0-5build3_amd64 
NAME
pfstmo_fattal02 - Gradient domain high dynamic range compression
SYNOPSIS
pfstmo_fattal02 [--alpha <val>] [--beta <val>] [--gamma <val>] [--saturation <val>] [--noise <val>]
[--detail-level <val>] [--black-point <val>] [--white-point <val>] [--multigrid] [--verbose] [--help]
DESCRIPTION
This command implements a tone mapping operator as described in:
Gradient Domain High Dynamic Range Compression R. Fattal, D. Lischinski, and M. Werman In ACM
Transactions on Graphics, 31(3), p. 249, 2002.
With respect to the original paper, this program provides additional parameter which limits the
amplification of noise. The noise is often starkly amplified because of division by zero in one of the
equations in the paper. Extension contributed by Przemyslaw Bazarnik.
At the core of the programme is a Poisson PDE which as suggested in the original paper is solved using a
Full Multigrid Algorithm. However, this is an iterative solver which seems to lose accuracy when applied
to higher resolution images resulting in halo effects and surreal looking images. For that reason a
second solver has been implemented using the discrete cosine transform as the underlying method and is
considerably more accurate mainly because it is a direct solver. This solver is the preferred method and
is used by default. The old multigrid solver can be selected with the --multigrid (-m) option.
OPTIONS
--alpha <val>, -a <val>
Set alpha parameter. This parameter is depreciated as setting a <val> other than 1.0 has only the
effect of a global gamma adjustment of the luminance channel which can be directly specified using
the --gamma option. See the paper for the definition of alpha. It can be shown, although not
mentioned in the paper, that setting alpha other than 1.0 has the same effect as setting gamma =
alpha^(k*(1-beta)), where beta is the value as specified by --beta and k is the number of levels
of the Gaussian Pyramid (see paper for details), which depends on the image pixel size (smallest k
so that 2^(k+detail_level) >= min(width,height)/MSIZE, MSIZE see source code, e.g. 8 or 32).
--beta <val>, -b <val>
Set beta parameter. <val> sets the strength of gradient (local contrast) modification. Suggested
range is 0.8 to 0.96, default is 0.9 (see paper for details). Value of 1 does not change
contrasts, values above 1 reverse the effect: local contrast is stretched and details are
attenuated. Values below 0.5 lead to very strong amplification of small contrast, so consider
using --noise parameter to prevent noise.
--gamma <val>, -g <val>
Set luminance gamma adjustment. This can be described as a global contrast enhancement and is
applied after the local enhancement as specified by the parameter --beta is performed. Gamma
adjustment or correction is defined by a power-law, in this case
L_out(x,y) = L_in(x,y)^gamma, where L_in(x,y)=exp(I(x,y)) is the luminance value after the local
contrast enhancement (I is the solution of the Poisson PDE). The suggested range for <val> is 0.6
to 1.0, default is 0.8.
--saturation <val>, -s <val>
Amount of color saturation. Suggested range is 0.4 to 0.8. Default value: 0.8.
--noise <val>, -n <val>
Reduces the gradient amplification value for gradients close to 0 and reduces noise as a result.
<val> defines gradient value (luminance difference of adjacent pixels) which is treated as noise.
Suggested range is 0.0 to the value of alpha. Default value calculated based on alpha:
0.001*alpha.
--detail-level <val>, -d <val>
Specifies up to which detail level the local contrast enhancement should be performed. It
basically means that local contrast levels within small squares of pixel size 2^<val> are not
changed. In the implementation this corresponds to removing the <val> finest levels of the
Gaussian Pyramid as described in the paper, i.e. the paper only considers <val>=0. Suggested
values are 1, 2 or 3; 3 for high resolution images. The default is 3 for --fftsolver, and 0 if the
original multi-level solver is used (to be consistent with the paper).
--white-point <val>, -w <val>
Specifies the percentage of pixels which are allowed to be overexposed and therefore blown out.
This can be useful for example when there is a very bright object in the image like the sun and
details of it do not need to be resolved. As a result the overall image will look brighter the
greater <val> is. Default is 0.5.
--black-point <val>, -k <val>
Same as --white-point but for under-exposed pixels. Default is 0.1.
--multigrid, -m
Enable the use of the multigrid solver as suggested by the original paper. For accuracy the
default fft solver is generally recommended especially when using high resolution images. The user
will benefit by obtaining photo-realistic rather than surreal looking images. The fft solver is
also faster despite the fact it is only O(n*log n) with n=width*height, as compared to O(n) for
the multigrid solver. The speed improvement is thanks to the very efficient fftw3 library which
is used to calculate the discrete cosine transform.
--verbose
Print additional information during program execution.
--help
Print list of command line options.
EXAMPLES
pfsin memorial.hdr | pfstmo_fattal02 -v -t | pfsout memorial.png
Tone map image (using fft solver) and save it in png format.
pfsin memorial.hdr | pfstmo_fattal02 -v -t -b 0.85 -g 0.7 -w 2.0 \
| pfsout memorial.png
Tone map image (using fft solver) with stronger contrast modification than default, i.e.
beta=0.85, gamma=0.7 and white point 2.0%.
pfsin memorial.hdr | pfstmo_fattal02 -v | pfsout memorial.png
Tone map image (old style) and save it in png format.
SEE ALSO
pfsin(1) pfsout(1) pfsview(1)
KNOWN ISSUES
For stronger local contrast enhancements (beta<0.9) the fft solver (--fftsolver) might produce slightly
dark image corners. This can be mitigated using bigger values for the --noise parameter.
With a value of --detail-level greater than 0, the internal implementation could be made much more
efficient as only a reduced sized PDE would need to be solved, greatly improving speed.
BUGS
Please report bugs and comments on implementation to the pfstools discussion group
(http://groups.google.com/group/pfstools). For bugs specific to the FFT solver email Tino Kluge
<tino.kluge@hrz.tu-chemnitz.de>.
pfstmo_fattal02(1)