Log-encoding estimation for color stabilization of cinematic footage

Abstract

We propose a method for the color stabilization of cinema shots coming from different cameras that use unknown logarithmic encoding curves. The log-encoding curves are approximated by a concatenation of gamma-curves, whose values are accurately computed using image matches. The color stabilization procedure, based on the generic color processing pipeline of a digital camera, can be performed after the estimation of the encoding curves, and it also requires the existence of image matches. Our work can be applied in different scenarios such as multi-camera shoots, native-3D cinema, or color grading in post-production.