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Awesome Low Light Image Enhancement

This is a resource list for low light image enhancement, including datasets, methods/codes/papers, metrics and so on.

Looking forward to your sharing! You can come up with your ideas and suggestions in the issue or directly pull request.

Introduction

Low light imaging and low light image enhancement have wild applications in our daily life and different scientific research fields, like night surveillance, automated driving, fluorescence microscopy, high speed imaging and so on. However, there is still a long way to go in dealing with these tasks, considering the great challenges in low photon counts, low SNR, complicated noise models, etc. Here, we collect a list of resources related to low light image enhancement, including datasets, methods/codes/papers, metrics, and so on. We hope this can help to provide some help to the development of new methods and solutions to the low light tasks.

Table of Contents

Highlights

:high_brightness: <font color='red'> News! </font>

Datasets

DatasetBrief introWebsite
SIDLearning to see in the dark ; <br /> contains 5094 raw shortexposure images, each with a corresponding long-exposure reference image (illuminance level: outdoor scene 0.2 lux - 5 lux; indoor scene: 0.03 lux - 0.3 lux)link
ExDARKA collection of 7,363 low-light images from very low-light environments to twilight (i.e 10 different conditions) with 12 object classes (similar to PASCAL VOC) annotated on both image class level and local object bounding boxes.github
LOLDeep Retinex Decomposition for Low-Light Enhancementlink
SICEA large-scale multi-exposure image dataset, which contains 589 elaborately selected high-resolution multi-exposure sequences with 4,413 imagesgithub
MIT-Adobe FiveKLearning Photographic Global Tonal Adjustment; <br /> a dataset consisting of 5,000 photographs, with both the original RAW images straight from the camera and adjusted versions by 5 trained photographerslink
DIDA high-quality low-light video dataset with multiple exposures and cameraslink
DPEDDSLR-quality photos on mobile devices with deep convolutional networkslink
VIP-LowLightEight Natural Images Captured in Very Low-Light Conditionslink
ReNOIRRENOIR - A Dataset for Real Low-Light Image Noise Reductionlink
LLIV-PhoneThe images and videos are taken by various phones' cameras under diverse illumination conditions and sceneslink
TM-DIED222 JPEG photos constituting some of the most challenging cases for image enhancement and tone-mapping algorithmslink
DRV202 paired raw low-light image Datasetlink
LIMEA small amount of unpaired images for testing.link
VV - PhosA color image database of 15 scenes captured under different illumination conditionslink
The 500px DatasetExposure: A White-Box Photo Post-Processing Framework-
The Extended Yale Face Database BThe extended Yale Face Database B contains 16128 images of 28 human subjects under 9 poses and 64 illumination conditions.link
the nighttime image datasetA dataset which contains source images in bad visibility and their enhanced images processed by different enhancement algorithmslink
VE-LOLA large-scale low-light image dataset serving both low/high-level vision with diversified scenes and contents as well as complex degradation in real scenarios, called Vision Enhancement in the LOw-Light condition (VE-LOL).link
SDSDSeeing Dynamic Scene in the Dark: High-Quality Video Dataset with Mechatronic Alignmentgithub
MIDMatching in the Dark: A Dataset for Matching Image Pairs of Low-light Sceneslink
DeepHDRVideoHDR Video Reconstruction: A Coarse-to-fine Network and A Real-world Benchmark Datasetlink
LLVIPLLVIP: A visible-infrared paired dataset for low-light visionlink
RELLISURRELLISUR: A Real Low-Light Image Super-Resolution Datasetlink
LSRWR2RNet: Low-light Image Enhancement via Real-low to Real-normal Network; <br />3170 paired images using the Nikon camera and 2480 paired images using the Huawei mobile phone.github
MCRMono-colored raw Paired dataset; <br />a dataset of colored raw and monochrome raw image pairs, captured with the same exposure setting. Each image has a resolution of 1280×1024. Totally 498 different scenes, each scene has 1 corresponding RGB and Monochrome ground truth and 8 different exposure color Raw inputs.Google Drive Baidu Netdisk
Raw Image Low-Light Object-link
LRAICEA Learning-to-Rank Approach for Image Color Enhancement-
LOM datasetA paired low-light & over-exposure & normal-light multi-view dataset (for NeRF under low-light conditions)Google Drive Baidu Netdisk

Review and Benchmark

YearPubPaperLinkNote
2021IJCVBenchmarking Low-Light Image Enhancement and Beyondpdf
2021IEEE PAMILow-Light Image and Video Enhancement Using Deep Learning: A Surveypdf
2022ArXivLow-Light Image and Video Enhancement: A Comprehensive Survey and Beyondpdf code
2023ArXivDarkVision: A Benchmark for Low-Light Image/Video PerceptionpdfDarkVision
2023Signal Process.A comprehensive experiment-based review of low-light image enhancement methods and benchmarking low-light image quality assessmentpdf

Methods

Learning-based methods

YearPubPaperLinkNote
2017ArXivMSR-net:Low-light Image Enhancement Using Deep Convolutional NetworkpdfMSR-net
2017ECCVDeep Burst Denoisingpdf
2017VCIPLLCNN: A convolutional neural network for low-light image enhancementpdf datasetLLCNN
2017Pattern Recognit.LLNet: A deep autoencoder approach to natural low-light image enhancementpdfLLNet
2017ACM Trans. Graph.Deep bilateral learning for real-time image enhancementpdf web codeHDRNet
2017ICCVDSLR-Quality Photos on Mobile Devices with Deep Convolutional Networkspdf
2018BMVCDeep Retinex Decomposition for Low-Light Enhancementpdf web codeRetinex-Net
2018BMVCMBLLEN: Low-light Image/Video Enhancement Using CNNspdf web codeMBLLEN
2018Pattern Recognit. Lett.LightenNet: A Convolutional Neural Network for weakly illuminated image enhancementpdfLightenNet
2018CVPRLearning to See in the Darkpdf web code dataset
2018IEEE TIPLearning a Deep Single Image Contrast Enhancer from Multi-Exposure Imagespdf codeSICE
2018ACM TOGExposure: A White-Box Photo Post-Processing Frameworkpdf code
2018FG conferenceGLADNet: Low-Light Enhancement Network with Global Awarenesspdf web code datasetGLADNet
2019IEEE TIPDeepISP: Towards Learning an End-to-End Image Processing PipelinepdfDeepISP
2019IEEE TIPLow-Light Image Enhancement via a Deep Hybrid Networkpdf
2019IEEE TIPEnlightenGAN: Deep Light Enhancement without Paired Supervisioncode pdfEnlightenGAN
2019ACM MMKindling the Darkness: A Practical Low-light Image Enhancerpdf code code+KinD
2019IEEE AccessA Pipeline Neural Network for Low-Light Image Enhancementpdf
2019NeurocomputingLearning Digital Camera Pipeline for Extreme Low-Light Imagingpdf
2019CVPRUnderexposed Photo Enhancement Using Deep Illumination Estimationpdf codeDeepUPE
2019ICCVEnhancing Low Light Videos by Exploring High Sensitivity Camera Noisepdf
2019ICIPEnhancement of Weakly Illuminated Images by Deep Fusion Networkspdf
2019ICCPA Bit Too Much? High Speed Imaging from Sparse Photon Countspdf
2019ICIPLlrnet: A Multiscale Subband Learning Approach for Low Light Image RestorationpdfLlrnet
2019ICIPLow-Lightgan: Low-Light Enhancement Via Advanced Generative Adversarial Network With Task-Driven TrainingpdfLow-Lightgan
2019ICMERDGAN: Retinex Decomposition Based Adversarial Learning for Low-Light Enhancementcode pdfRDGAN
2019ICMEWLow-Light Image Enhancement with Attention and Multi-level Feature Fusionpdf
2019PRCVAn Effective Network with ConvLSTM for Low-Light Image Enhancementpdf
2019VISIGRAPPEnd-to-End Denoising of Dark Burst Images Using Recurrent Fully Convolutional Networkspdf
2020CVPRZero-Reference Deep Curve Estimation for Low-Light Image Enhancementpdf web codeZero-DCE
2020CVPRLearning to Restore Low-Light Images via Decomposition-and-Enhancementpdf
2020CVPRFrom Fidelity to Perceptual Quality: A Semi-Supervised Approach for Low-Light Image Enhancementpdf web slidesDRBN
2020CVPRDeepLPF: Deep Local Parametric Filters for Image Enhancementpdf codeDeepLPF
2020IEEE PAMILearning Image-adaptive 3D Lookup Tables for High Performance Photo Enhancement in Real-timepdf codeImage-Adaptive-3DLUT
2020IET Image Proc.Learning an Adaptive Model for Extreme Low-Light Raw Image Processingpdf code
2020ArXivVisual Perception Model for Rapid and Adaptive Low-light Image Enhancementpdf code
2020ArXivSelf-supervised Image Enhancement Network: Training with Low Light Images Onlypdf code
2020ICPRUnsupervised Real-world Low-light Image Enhancement with Decoupled Networkspdf
2021IJCVAttention Guided Low-Light Image Enhancement with a Large Scale Low-Light Simulation Datasetpdf code
2021CVPRRetinex-Inspired Unrolling with Cooperative Prior Architecture Search for Low-Light Image Enhancementpdf web codeRUAS
2021CVPRDeep Denoising of Flash and No-Flash Pairs for Photography in Low-Light Environmentspdf code
2021CVPRExtreme Low-Light Environment-Driven Image Denoising over Permanently Shadowed Lunar Regions with a Physical Noise ModelpdfHORUS
2021CVPRLearning Temporal Consistency for Low Light Video Enhancement from Single Imagespdf code
2021CVPRNighttime Visibility Enhancement by Increasing the Dynamic Range and Suppression of Light Effectspdf
2021ICCVSeeing Dynamic Scene in the Dark: A High-Quality Video Dataset with Mechatronic Alignmentpdf codeSDSD
2021ICCVHDR Video Reconstruction: A Coarse-to-Fine Network and a Real-World Benchmark Datasetpdf web codeDeepHDRVideo
2021ICCVMatching in the Dark: A Dataset for Matching Image Pairs of Low-Light Scenespdf web codeMID
2021ICCVAdaptive Unfolding Total Variation Network for Low-Light Image Enhancementpdf codeUTVNet
2021ICCVWLLVIP: A Visible-Infrared Paired Dataset for Low-Light Visionpdf code webLLVIP
2021JVCIRR2RNet: Low-Light Image Enhancement via Real-Low to Real-Normal Networkpdf codeR2RNet
2022CVPRToward Fast, Flexible, and Robust Low-Light Image Enhancementpdf codeSCI
2022CVPRDeep Color Consistent Network for Low-Light Image EnhancementpdfDCC-Net
2022CVPRURetinex-Net: Retinex-Based Deep Unfolding Network for Low-Light Image Enhancementpdf codeURetinex-Net
2022CVPRDay-to-Night Image Synthesis for Training Nighttime Neural ISPspdf code
2022CVPRSNR-Aware Low-Light Image Enhancementpdf code
2022CVPRDancing Under the Stars: Video Denoising in Starlightpdf
2022CVPRAbandoning the Bayer-Filter To See in the Darkpdf code
2022ECCVUnsupervised Night Image Enhancement: When Layer Decomposition Meets Light-Effects Suppressionpdf code
2022ECCVDeep Fourier-Based Exposure Correction Network with Spatial-Frequency Interactionpdf code
2022ECCVLEDNet: Joint Low-Light Enhancement and Deblurring in the Darkpdf codeLEDNet
2022AAAILow-Light Image Enhancement with Normalizing Flowpdf code webLLFlow
2022AAAISemantically contrastive learning for low-light image enhancementpdf code webSCL-LLE
2022AAAIDarkVisionNet: Low-Light Imaging via RGB-NIR Fusion with Deep Inconsistency PriorpdfDarkVisionNet
2022ACM MMChebyLighter: Optimal Curve Estimation for Low-Light Image Enhancementpdf codeChebyLighter
2022BMCVYou only need 90K parameters to adapt light: a light weight transformer for image enhancement and exposure correctionpdf codeIAT
2022IJCVLow-Light Image Enhancement via Breaking down the Darknesspdf codeBread
2022NeurocomputingLow-Light Image Enhancement with Knowledge Distillationpdf
2022NeurocomputingLSR: Lightening Super-Resolution Deep Network for Low-Light Image EnhancementpdfLSR
2022Pattern Recognit.Brain-like Retinex: A Biologically Plausible Retinex Algorithm for Low Light Image Enhancementpdf
2022Pattern Recognit.LAE-Net: A Locally-Adaptive Embedding Network for Low-Light Image EnhancementpdfLAE-Net
2022Knowl-Based SystLE-GAN: Unsupervised Low-Light Image Enhancement Network Using Attention Module and Identity Invariant LosspdfLE-GAN
2022Opt. Lasers Eng.Infrared and Low-Light Visible Image Fusion Based on Hybrid Multiscale Decomposition and Adaptive Light Adjustmentpdf
2022Applied Soft ComputingA predictive intelligence approach for low-light enhancementpdf
2022IEEE TMMPurifying Low-light Images via Near-Infrared Enlightened Imagepdf
2022IEEE TNNLSDRLIE: Flexible Low-Light Image Enhancement via Disentangled Representationspdf
2022IEEE TCSVTEFINet: Restoration for Low-Light Images via Enhancement-Fusion Iterative Networkpdf codeEFINet
2023Information FusionA Mutually Boosting Dual Sensor Computational Camera for High Quality Dark Videographypdf codeDCMAN
2023Pattern Recognit.TreEnhance: A tree search method for low-light image enhancementpdf codeTreEnhance
2023AAAIUltra-high-definition low-light image enhancement: A benchmark and transformer-based methodpdf code web
2023AAAILow-Light Video Enhancement with Synthetic Event Guidancepdf
2023AAAIPolarization-Aware Low-Light Image Enhancementpdf code
2023CVPRDNF: Decouple and feedback network for seeing in the darkpdf codeDNF
2023CVPRLearning a simple low-light image enhancer from paired low-light instancespdf codePairLIE
2023CVPRLearning semantic-aware knowledge guidance for low-light image enhancementpdf codeSKF
2023CVPRLow-light image enhancement via structure modeling and guidancepdf
2023CVPRPhysics-guided ISO-Dependent sensor noise modeling for extreme low-light photographypdf codeLLD
2023CVPRVisibility constrained wide-band illumination spectrum design for seeing-in-the-darkpdf codeVCSD
2023IEEE TMMGlow in the Dark: Low-Light Image Enhancement with External Memorypdf codeEMNet
2023Mach. Vision Appl.LDNet: low-light image enhancement with joint lighting and denoisingpdfLDNet
2023IEEE TPAMILearning With Nested Scene Modeling and Cooperative Architecture Search for Low-Light Visionpdf codeRUAS
2023IEEE TIPTSDN: Two-Stage Raw Denoising in the DarkpdfTSDN
2023IEEE TIPUnsupervised Low-Light Video Enhancement with Spatial-Temporal Co-attention TransformerpdfLightenFormer
2023IEEE TCYBDeep Perceptual Image Enhancement Network for Exposure RestorationpdfDPIENet
2023SIGGRAPH ASIALow-light Image Enhancement with Wavelet-based Diffusion Modelspdf codeDiffLL
2023ACM MMCLE Diffusion: Controllable Light Enhancement Diffusion Modelpdf code webCLE Diffusion
2023ACM MMFourLLIE: Boosting Low-Light Image Enhancement by Fourier Frequency Informationpdf codeFourLLIE
2023Pattern Recognit.A reflectance re-weighted Retinex model for non-uniform and low-light image enhancementpdf
2023Pattern Recognit.SurroundNet: Towards effective low-light image enhancementpdf codeSurroundNet
2023ICCVCoherent event guided low-light video enhancementpdf code webEvLowLight
2023ICCVDancing in the dark: A benchmark towards general low-light video enhancementpdf codeDID
2023ICCVDiff-Retinex: Rethinking Low-light Image Enhancement with A Generative Diffusion ModelpdfDiff-Retinex
2023ICCVEmpowering low-light image enhancer through customized learnable priorspdf codeCUE
2023ICCVExposureDiffusion: Learning to expose for low-light image enhancementpdf codeExposureDiffusion
2023ICCVImplicit neural representation for cooperative low-light image enhancementpdf codeNeRCo
2023ICCVLow-light image enhancement with illumination-aware gamma correction and complete image modelling networkpdfCOMO-ViT
2023ICCVLow-light image enhancement with multi-stage residue quantization and brightness-aware attentionpdf codeRQ-LLIE
2023ICCVRetinexformer: One-stage retinex-based transformer for low-light image enhancementpdf codeRetinexformer
2023ICCVLighting up NeRF via unsupervised decomposition and enhancementpdf codeLLNeRF
2023PRICAIBootstrap diffusion model curve estimation for high resolution low-light image enhancementpdfBDCE
2023Appl. Mach. Learn.LoLi-IEA: low-light image enhancement algorithmpdf codeLoLi-IEA
2024IEEE Sens. Lett.Integrating Graph Convolution Into a Deep Multilayer Framework for Low-Light Image Enhancementpdf code
2025Digital Signal Process.CDAN: Convolutional dense attention-guided network for low-light image enhancementpdf codeCDAN

HE-based methods

YearPubPaperLinkNote
1990IEEE TCEContrast limited adaptive histogram equalization: speed and effectivenesspdfCLAHE
2007IEEE TCEBrightness Preserving Dynamic Histogram Equalization for Image Contrast Enhancementpdf codeBPDHE
2007IEEE TCEA Dynamic Histogram Equalization for Image Contrast EnhancementpdfDHE
2007IEEE TCEFast Image/Video Contrast Enhancement Based on Weighted Thresholded Histogram EqualizationpdfWTHE
2011IEEE TIPContextual and Variational Contrast EnhancementpdfCVC
2013IEEE TIPContrast enhancement based on layered difference representation of 2D histogramspdf webLDR
2013ICASSPHigh efficient contrast enhancement using parametric approximationpdfPOHE

Retinex-based methods

YearPubPaperLinkNote
1997IEEE TIPProperties and performance of a center/surround retinexpdfSSR
1997IEEE TIPA multiscale retinex for bridging the gap between color images and the human observation of scenespdf code1 code2MSRCR
2013SITISAdaptive Multiscale Retinex for Image Contrast Enhancementcode pdfAMSR
2013IEEE TIPNaturalness Preserved Enhancement Algorithm for Non-Uniform Illumination Imagespdf web codeNPE
2015IEEE TIPA Probabilistic Method for Image Enhancement With Simultaneous Illumination and Reflectance Estimationpdf codeSRIE
2016CVPRA Weighted Variational Model for Simultaneous Reflectance and Illumination Estimationpdf codeSRIE
2016Signal ProcessingA fusion-based enhancing method for weakly illuminated imagespdf codeMF
2016ACM MMLIME: A Method for Low-light Image Enhancementpdf web codeLIME
2017IEEE TIPLIME: Low-Light Image Enhancement via Illumination Map Estimationpdf code1 code2 code3LIME
2017ICCVA Joint Intrinsic-Extrinsic Prior Model for Retinexpdf web codeJieP
2018IEEE TIPStructure-Revealing Low-Light Image Enhancement Via Robust Retinex Modelpdf code1 code2
2018SymmetryA Smart System for Low-Light Image Enhancement with Color Constancy and Detail Manipulation in Complex Light Environmentspdf
2019SymmetryFractional-Order Fusion Model for Low-Light Image Enhancementpdf
2019ICIPA Hybrid L2 −LP Variational Model For Single Low-Light Image Enhancement With Bright Channel Priorpdf
2019IET Image Proc.Low light image enhancement based on non-uniform illumination prior modelpdfNIPM
2019Comput. Graphics ForumDual illumination estimation for robust exposure correctionpdf code
2020ic-ETITEA comparative analysis of illumination estimation based Image Enhancement techniquespdf
2020IEEE TIPLR3M: Robust Low-Light Enhancement via Low-Rank Regularized Retinex ModelpdfLR3M
2023Vis ComputIllumination estimation for nature preserving low-light image enhancementpdfNPLIE
2023ICCVDiff-Retinex: Rethinking Low-light Image Enhancement with A Generative Diffusion ModelpdfDiff-Retinex
2023ICCVRetinexformer: One-stage retinex-based transformer for low-light image enhancementpdf codeRetinexformer

Other methods

YearPubPaperLinkNote
2008IET Image Proc.Fast centre-surround contrast modificationpdf
2011ICMEFast efficient algorithm for enhancement of low lighting videopdf code
2017ICCVWA New Low-Light Image Enhancement Algorithm Using Camera Response Modelpdf code
2017ArXivA Bio-Inspired Multi-Exposure Fusion Framework for Low-light Image Enhancementpdf codeBIMEF
2017ICCAIPA New Image Contrast Enhancement Algorithm Using Exposure Fusion Frameworkpdf web code1 code2
2019IEEE TIPLow-Light Image Enhancement via the Absorption Light Scattering ModelpdfALSM
2019ICIPFast Image Enhancement Based on Maximum and Guided Filterspdf

Related Works

YearPubPaperLinkNoteTag
2012ISTImproving the robustness in feature detection by local contrast enhancementdataset
2015ACM ToGAutomatic Photo Adjustment Using Deep Neural Networksweb code pdf
2018CVPRDistort-and-Recover: Color Enhancement using Deep Reinforcement Learningcode pdf
2021TMMRecurrent exposure generation for low-light face detectionpdf codeREGDetface detection
2021CVPRHLA-Face: Joint High-Low Adaptation for Low Light Face Detectionweb pdf codeHLA-Faceface detection
2021ICCVMultitask AET With Orthogonal Tangent Regularity for Dark Object Detectionpdf codeMAETobject detection
2021ICCVPhoton-Net: Photon-Starved Scene Inference using Single Photon Cameraspdf code videoPhoton-Netsingle photon
2021ICCVWSingle-Stage Face Detection under Extremely Low-Light Conditionspdfface detection
2021ICCVWDeLiEve-Net: Deblurring Low-Light Images with Light Streaks and Local EventspdfDeLiEve-Netevent camera
2022ArXivAn Efficient Low-Light Restoration Transformer for Dark Light Field ImagesLRTlight field
2022ICCPRobust Scene Inference under Noise-Blur Dual Corruptionspdf code webNoise-Blur Dualobject detection
2023ICCVFeatEnHancer: Enhancing Hierarchical Features for Object Detection and Beyond Under Low-Light Visionpdf code WebFeatEnHancerobject detection and semantic segmentation
2023IEEE TIPINFWIDE: Image and feature space wiener deconvolution network for non-blind image deblurring in low-light conditionspdf codeINFWIDEdeblurring
2024AAAIAleth-NeRF: Illumination Adaptive NeRF with Concealing Field Assumptionpdf code webAleth-NeRFNeRF

Metrics

MetricAbbrFull-/Non-ReferenceLink
Peak Signal to Noise RatioPSNRFull-Reference-
Structural Similarity Index MeasureSSIMFull-Reference-
Learned Perceptual Image Patch SimilarityLPIPSFull-Referencecode
Lightness Order ErrorLOENon-Referencepaper
Natural Image Quality EvaluatorNIQENon-Referencepaper
Mean Square ErrorMSEFull-Reference-
Mean Absolute ErrorMAEFull-Reference-
Smartphone Photography Attribute and QualitySPAQNon-Referencecode
Neural Image AssessmentNIMANon-Referencepytorch tensorflow
Multi-scale Image Quality TransformerMUSIQNon-Referencecode

More reference