Improving the highlight reproduction of an imaging system

Abstract

A method and apparatus for calibrating a sensor for highlights and for processing highlights is described. In an embodiment, a method includes identifying highlight regions in an image of a scene. The method further includes calculating flare intensity values for the image using the locations of the highlight regions. The method also includes subtracting the flare intensity values from the image.

1 . A method for improving the highlight reproduction of an imaging system comprising: 
 capturing a multi-channel image of a scene;    identifying a highlight region in the multi-channel image;    identifying a first channel having saturated signal values in at least a portion of the highlight region;    identifying a second channel having unsaturated signal values in said portion of the highlight region; and    using the unsaturated signal values in the second channel to provide modified signal values for the first channel in said portion of the highlight region.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the multi-channel image comprises a red channel, a green channel, and a blue channel.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the modified signal values for the first channel are provided using constant hue interpolation.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3  wherein the multi-channel image comprises a red channel, a green channel, and a blue channel.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the multi-channel image is captured using photosensitive film.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the multi-channel image is captured using an electronic camera.  
     
     
         7 . A method for improving the highlight reproduction of an imaging system comprising: 
 receiving a multi-channel image of a scene;    detecting the presence of an area of saturated values in the multi-channel image;    processing the edge of the area of saturated values to determine if the color of the edge corresponds to a color that is close to the white point of the scene; and    replacing the saturated values with values whose color corresponds to increasing intensities of the white point of the scene when the color of the edge corresponds to a color that is close to the white of the scene.    
     
     
         8 . The method of claim  10  wherein the saturated values are replaced with values having a parabolic profile.