Two psychophysical experiments were performed to evaluate image preference of 6 high-dynamic-range (HDR) image rendering algorithms. The experiments were split into a paired comparison experiment examining overall preference, and a rating scale experiment judging individual preference for 6 image attributes: highlight details, shadow details, overall contrast, sharpness, colorfulness and artifacts. The paired comparison experiment was analyzed using Thurstone's law to generate interval scales. In addition, dual scaling analysis indicates a single perceptual dimension accounting for the variance of overall preference. The overall preference shows high correlations with shadow details, overall contrast, sharpness and colorfulness, which represent the most important factors in observers' preference judgment. Stepwise regression of various image attributes to the overall preference results showed that for many images the preference scales of a single attribute can predict the overall image preference.
Jiangtao Kuang, Garrett M. Johnson, Mark D. Fairchild, "Image Preference Scaling for HDR Image Rendering" in Proc. IS&T 13th Color and Imaging Conf., 2005, pp 8 - 13, https://doi.org/10.2352/CIC.2005.13.1.art00002