simple illumination correction in images openCV c++

I have some color photos and the illumination is not regular in the photos: one side of the image is brighter than the other side.

I would like to solve this problem by correcting the illumination. I think local contrast will help me but I don't know how :(

Would you please help me with a piece of code or a pipeline ?

Solution 1:

Convert the RGB image to Lab color-space (e.g., any color-space with a luminance channel will work fine), then apply adaptive histogram equalization to the L channel. Finally convert the resulting Lab back to RGB.

What you want is OpenCV's CLAHE (Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization) algorithm. However, as far as I know it is not documented. There is an example in python. You can read about CLAHE in Graphics Gems IV, pp474-485

Here is an example of CLAHE in action:

And here is the C++ that produced the above image, based on http://answers.opencv.org/question/12024/use-of-clahe/, but extended for color.

#include <opencv2/core.hpp>
#include <vector>       // std::vector
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    // READ RGB color image and convert it to Lab
    cv::Mat bgr_image = cv::imread("image.png");
    cv::Mat lab_image;
    cv::cvtColor(bgr_image, lab_image, CV_BGR2Lab);

    // Extract the L channel
    std::vector<cv::Mat> lab_planes(3);
    cv::split(lab_image, lab_planes);  // now we have the L image in lab_planes[0]

    // apply the CLAHE algorithm to the L channel
    cv::Ptr<cv::CLAHE> clahe = cv::createCLAHE();
    clahe->setClipLimit(4);
    cv::Mat dst;
    clahe->apply(lab_planes[0], dst);

    // Merge the the color planes back into an Lab image
    dst.copyTo(lab_planes[0]);
    cv::merge(lab_planes, lab_image);

   // convert back to RGB
   cv::Mat image_clahe;
   cv::cvtColor(lab_image, image_clahe, CV_Lab2BGR);

   // display the results  (you might also want to see lab_planes[0] before and after).
   cv::imshow("image original", bgr_image);
   cv::imshow("image CLAHE", image_clahe);
   cv::waitKey();
}

Solution 2:

The answer provided by Bull is the best I have come across so far. I have been using it to. Here is the python code for the same:

import cv2

#-----Reading the image-----------------------------------------------------
img = cv2.imread('Dog.jpg', 1)
cv2.imshow("img",img) 

#-----Converting image to LAB Color model----------------------------------- 
lab= cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2LAB)
cv2.imshow("lab",lab)

#-----Splitting the LAB image to different channels-------------------------
l, a, b = cv2.split(lab)
cv2.imshow('l_channel', l)
cv2.imshow('a_channel', a)
cv2.imshow('b_channel', b)

#-----Applying CLAHE to L-channel-------------------------------------------
clahe = cv2.createCLAHE(clipLimit=3.0, tileGridSize=(8,8))
cl = clahe.apply(l)
cv2.imshow('CLAHE output', cl)

#-----Merge the CLAHE enhanced L-channel with the a and b channel-----------
limg = cv2.merge((cl,a,b))
cv2.imshow('limg', limg)

#-----Converting image from LAB Color model to RGB model--------------------
final = cv2.cvtColor(limg, cv2.COLOR_LAB2BGR)
cv2.imshow('final', final)

#_____END_____#