A Novel Image Enhancement Method Based on Guided Filtering and Modified Retinex

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel image enhancement based on guided filtering and modified Retinex method to address the problems of poor visual effect, unclear images and incomplete display of details in low-light images. Low-illumination images are processed using guided filtering to adaptively enhance the luminance component. This method consists of two parts: the image decomposition network and the image enhancement network. The image decomposition network is responsible for decomposing the original image into illumination components and reflection components. The image enhancement network optimizes parameters and performs $\gamma$ correction through the natural image quality evaluator (NIQE), adjusting the brightness and contrast of the illumination component, and then re-fuses it with the reflection component to improve the overall image quality. Finally, image quality enhancement experiments are conducted using the images in the SOTS standard test set and six actual scene images. They are compared and analyzed with other advanced methods. The experimental results show that the proposed method is superior to other methods in both subjective visual effects and objective evaluation indicators, thus fully verifying the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.