Deep unsupervised learning based on color un-referenced loss functions for multi-exposure image fusion

Abstract In this paper, an unsupervised learning-based approach is presented for fusing bracketed exposures into high-quality images that avoids the need for interim conversion to intermediate high dynamic range (HDR) images. As an objective quality measure – the colored multi-exposure fusion structural similarity index measure (MEF-SSIMc) – is optimized to update the network parameters, the unsupervised learning can be realized without using any ground truth (GT) images. Furthermore, an unreferenced gradient fidelity term is added in the loss function to recover and supplement the image information for the fused image. As shown in the experiments, the proposed algorithm performs well in terms of structure, texture, and color. In particular, it maintains the order of variations in the original image brightness and suppresses edge blurring and halo effects, and it also produces good visual effects that have good quantitative evaluation indicators. Our code will be publicly available at https://github.com/cathying-cq/UMEF .