Logluv TIFF is an encoding used for storing high-dynamic-range imaging data inside a TIFF image. It was originally developed by Greg Ward for storing HDR-output of his Radiance-photonmapper at a time where storage space was a crucial factor. Its implementation in TIFF also allowed the combination with image-compression algorithms without great programming effort. As such it has to be considered a smart compromise between the imposed limitations. It is slightly related to RGBE, the most successful HDRI storage format, an earlier invention of Greg Ward.
Logluv TIFF's design solves two specific problems: storing high-dynamic image data and doing so within a reasonable amount of space. Traditional image format generally stores pixel data in RGB-space occupying 24 bits, with 8 bits for each color component. This limits the representable colors to a subset of all visible and distinguishable colors, introducing quantization and clamping artifacts clearly visible to human observers. Using a triplet of floats to represent RGB would be a viable solution, but it would quadruple the size of the file (occupying 32 bits for each color-component, as opposed to 8 bits).
Instead of using RGB, LogLuv uses the logarithm of the luminance and the CIELUV (u’, v’) chromaticity coordinates in order to provide a perceptually uniform color space. LogLuv allocates 8 bits for each of the u’ and v’ coordinates, which allows encoding the full visible gamut with imperceptible step sizes. In order to provide the required high dynamic range with imperceptible luminance steps, LogLuv uses 16 bits to encode a fixed-point base 2 logarithm of the luminance, which allows an EV range of nearly 128 stops. The space occupied by one pixel is thus 32 bits (L16 + U8 + V8), marginally bigger than a standard 8 bit RGB-image.
In an attempt to prevent the expansion of data-size, Logluv comes in a 24-bit flavour, which in a rather complicated way quantizes lightness to 10 bit and merges U/V into a 14-bit look-up based value.
Logluv TIFF has widespread use in HDRI applications such as IBL, image-based lighting.
Reading and writing of Logluv TIFF images can be handled via LibTIFF. [1] LibTIFF is freely available in both source and various binary packages for different platforms.
Gamma correction or gamma is a nonlinear operation used to encode and decode luminance or tristimulus values in video or still image systems. Gamma correction is, in the simplest cases, defined by the following power-law expression:
In photography and videography, multi-exposure HDR capture is a technique that creates high dynamic range (HDR) images by taking and combining multiple exposures of the same subject matter at different exposure levels. Combining multiple images in this way results in an image with a greater dynamic range than what would be possible by taking one single image. The technique can also be used to capture video by taking and combining multiple exposures for each frame of the video. The term "HDR" is used frequently to refer to the process of creating HDR images from multiple exposures. Many smartphones have an automated HDR feature that relies on computational imaging techniques to capture and combine multiple exposures.
The CIELAB color space, also referred to as L*a*b*, is a color space defined by the International Commission on Illumination in 1976. It expresses color as three values: L* for perceptual lightness and a* and b* for the four unique colors of human vision: red, green, blue and yellow. CIELAB was intended as a perceptually uniform space, where a given numerical change corresponds to a similar perceived change in color. While the LAB space is not truly perceptually uniform, it nevertheless is useful in industry for detecting small differences in color.
The Adobe RGB (1998) color space or opRGB is a color space developed by Adobe Inc. in 1998. It was designed to encompass most of the colors achievable on CMYK color printers, but by using RGB primary colors on a device such as a computer display. The Adobe RGB (1998) color space encompasses roughly 50% of the visible colors specified by the CIELAB color space – improving upon the gamut of the sRGB color space, primarily in cyan-green hues. It was subsequently standardized by the IEC as IEC 61966-2-5:1999 with a name opRGB and is used in HDMI.
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A camera raw image file contains unprocessed or minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, a motion picture film scanner, or other image scanner. Raw files are so named because they are not yet processed, and contain large amounts of potentially redundant data. Normally, the image is processed by a raw converter, in a wide-gamut internal color space where precise adjustments can be made before conversion to a viewable file format such as JPEG or PNG for storage, printing, or further manipulation. There are dozens of raw formats in use by different manufacturers of digital image capture equipment.
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xvYCC or extended-gamut YCbCr is a color space that can be used in the video electronics of television sets to support a gamut 1.8 times as large as that of the sRGB color space. xvYCC was proposed by Sony, specified by the IEC in October 2005 and published in January 2006 as IEC 61966-2-4. xvYCC extends the ITU-R BT.709 tone curve by defining over-ranged values. xvYCC-encoded video retains the same color primaries and white point as BT.709, and uses either a BT.601 or BT.709 RGB-to-YCC conversion matrix and encoding. This allows it to travel through existing digital limited range YCC data paths, and any colors within the normal gamut will be compatible. It works by allowing negative RGB inputs and expanding the output chroma. These are used to encode more saturated colors by using a greater part of the RGB values that can be encoded in the YCbCr signal compared with those used in Broadcast Safe Level. The extra-gamut colors can then be displayed by a device whose underlying technology is not limited by the standard primaries.
RGBE or Radiance HDR is an image format invented by Gregory Ward Larson for the Radiance rendering system. It stores pixels as one byte each for RGB values with a one byte shared exponent. Thus it stores four bytes per pixel.
scRGB is a wide color gamut RGB color space created by Microsoft and HP that uses the same color primaries and white/black points as the sRGB color space but allows coordinates below zero and greater than one. The full range is −0.5 through just less than +7.5.
ITU-R Recommendation BT.2020, more commonly known by the abbreviations Rec. 2020 or BT.2020, defines various aspects of ultra-high-definition television (UHDTV) with standard dynamic range (SDR) and wide color gamut (WCG), including picture resolutions, frame rates with progressive scan, bit depths, color primaries, RGB and luma-chroma color representations, chroma subsamplings, and an opto-electronic transfer function. The first version of Rec. 2020 was posted on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) website on August 23, 2012, and two further editions have been published since then.
Luminance HDR, formerly Qtpfsgui, is graphics software used for the creation and manipulation of high-dynamic-range images. Released under the terms of the GPL, it is available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. Luminance HDR supports several High Dynamic Range (HDR) as well as Low Dynamic Range (LDR) file formats.
The Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) is a color image encoding system created under the auspices of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. ACES is characterised by a color accurate workflow, with "seamless interchange of high quality motion picture images regardless of source".
Standard-dynamic-range video is a video technology which represents light intensity based on the brightness, contrast and color characteristics and limitations of a cathode ray tube (CRT) display. SDR video is able to represent a video or picture's colors with a maximum luminance around 100 cd/m2, a black level around 0.1 cd/m2 and Rec.709 / sRGB color gamut. It uses the gamma curve as its electro-optical transfer function.
ICTCP, ICtCp, or ITP is a color representation format specified in the Rec. ITU-R BT.2100 standard that is used as a part of the color image pipeline in video and digital photography systems for high dynamic range (HDR) and wide color gamut (WCG) imagery. It was developed by Dolby Laboratories from the IPT color space by Ebner and Fairchild. The format is derived from an associated RGB color space by a coordinate transformation that includes two matrix transformations and an intermediate nonlinear transfer function that is informally known as gamma pre-correction. The transformation produces three signals called I, CT, and CP. The ICTCP transformation can be used with RGB signals derived from either the perceptual quantizer (PQ) or hybrid log–gamma (HLG) nonlinearity functions, but is most commonly associated with the PQ function.
ITU-R Recommendation BT.2100, more commonly known by the abbreviations Rec. 2100 or BT.2100, introduced high-dynamic-range television (HDR-TV) by recommending the use of the perceptual quantizer (PQ) or hybrid log–gamma (HLG) transfer functions instead of the traditional "gamma" previously used for SDR-TV.
High-dynamic-range television (HDR-TV) is a technology that uses high dynamic range (HDR) to improve the quality of display signals. It is contrasted with the retroactively-named standard dynamic range (SDR). HDR changes the way the luminance and colors of videos and images are represented in the signal, and allows brighter and more detailed highlight representation, darker and more detailed shadows, and more intense colors.
JPEG XT is an image compression standard which specifies backward-compatible extensions of the base JPEG standard.
This article is about the transfer functions used in pictures and videos and describing the relationship between electrical signal, scene light and displayed light.