Cornsweet surfaces for selective contrast enhancement

The contrast of photographs or rendered images is commonly enhanced to increase the image’s visual appeal. Normal computer science approaches take no account of image content. In artwork, spatial configurations are use to increase apparent contrast. We have a spatially aware contrast enhancement algorithm, which uses image structure to hide the countershading profiles. We can achieve enhancements that better match the countershading used by artists, with no loss of contrast compared to traditional contrast enhancement techniques.