Compensation of de-saturation effect in HDR imaging using a real scene adaptation model

► We estimate global illumination for HDR rendering without de-saturation effects. ► New D factor is formulated based on perceived white point for different luminance. ► De-saturation effects are reduced by illuminant application in chromatic adaptation. The iCAM06, a high dynamic range rendering process, contains chromatic adaptation method based on the CIECAM02 model. The D factor, degree of adaptation, in the chromatic adaptation of the iCAM06 is the function of the adapting luminance level, but it does not consider the visual white point shift according to the variation of luminance level. The iCAM06 acquires a blurred illuminant image. So, each pixel has a different illuminant color. When some of the colors cover the entire image, a de-saturation effect appears around these colors. The simply modified D factor to reduce the de-saturation effect causes unsuitable changes in the degree of adaptation. Therefore, we propose a new method to find the global illuminant information and the D factor for the illuminant in the HDR image rendering process. Comparing the proposed with the conventional method, we confirm that the proposed method provides better illuminant estimation and color representation.