Contrast Brushes: Interactive Image Enhancement by Direct Manipulation

Abstract

We implement contrast brushes, an interactive method for directly brushing contrast adjustments onto an image. The adjustments are performed by a histogram warping approach that implements tone mapping using piecewisedefined, continuously differentiable, monotonic splines. This allows the independent specification of tone changes and contrast adjustments without causing halo or contouring artifacts, while still endowing contrast brushes with intelligible parameters that render their effects predictable for the user. A user study demonstrates that contrast brushes can prove more effective than Adobe Photoshop's interactive contrast enhancement tools.