2025/11/04 by Wenyang Wei, Yang Yang, Wei, Wenyang +9
Computer Science · #Computer Graphics and Visualization Techniques #Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Generative Adversarial Networks and Image Synthesis #Image Enhancement Techniques
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2511.02411
openalex publication_date 2025/11/04 · openalex created_date 2025/11/06 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present IllumFlow, a novel framework that synergizes conditional Rectified Flow (CRF) with Retinex theory for low-light image enhancement (LLIE). Our model addresses low-light enhancement through separate optimization of illumination and reflectance components, effectively handling both lighting variations and noise. Specifically, we first decompose an input image into reflectance and illumination components following Retinex theory. To model the wide dynamic range of illumination variations in low-light images, we propose a conditional rectified flow framework that represents illumination changes as a continuous flow field. While complex noise primarily resides in the reflectance component, we introduce a denoising network, enhanced by flow-derived data augmentation, to remove reflectance noise and chromatic aberration while preserving color fidelity. IllumFlow enables precise illumination adaptation across lighting conditions while naturally supporting customizable brightness enhancement. Extensive experiments on low-light enhancement and exposure correction demonstrate superior quantitative and qualitative performance over existing methods.