NTIRE 2024 Challenge on Low Light Image Enhancement: Methods and Results
Xiaoning Liu, Zongwei Wu, Ao Li, Florin-Alexandru Vasluianu, Yulun Zhang, Shuhang Gu, Le Zhang, Ce Zhu, Radu Timofte, Zhi Jin, Hongjun Wu, Chenxi Wang, Haitao Ling, Yuanhao Cai, Hao Bian, Yuxin Zheng, Jing Lin, Alan Yuille, Ben Shao, Jin Guo, Tianli Liu, Mohao Wu, Yixu Feng, Shuo Hou, Haotian Lin, Yu Zhu, Peng Wu, Wei Dong, Jinqiu Sun, Yanning Zhang, Qingsen Yan, Wenbin Zou, Weipeng Yang, Yunxiang Li, Qiaomu Wei, Tian Ye, Sixiang Chen, Zhao Zhang, Suiyi Zhao, Bo Wang, Yan Luo, Zhichao Zuo, Mingshen Wang, Junhu Wang, Yanyan Wei, Xiaopeng Sun, Yu Gao, Jiancheng Huang, Hongming Chen, Xiang Chen, Hui Tang, Yuanbin Chen, Yuanbo Zhou, Xinwei Dai, Xintao Qiu, Wei Deng, Qinquan Gao, Tong Tong, Mingjia Li, Jin Hu, Xinyu He, Xiaojie Guo, Sabarinathan, K Uma, A Sasithradevi, B Sathya Bama, S. Mohamed Mansoor Roomi, V. Srivatsav, Jinjuan Wang, Long Sun, Qiuying Chen, Jiahong Shao, Yizhi Zhang, Marcos V. Conde, Daniel Feijoo, Juan C. Benito, Alvaro García, Jaeho Lee, Seongwan Kim, Sharif S M A, Nodirkhuja Khujaev, Roman Tsoy, Ali Murtaza, Uswah Khairuddin, Ahmad 'Athif Mohd Faudzi, Sampada Malagi, Amogh Joshi, Nikhil Akalwadi, Chaitra Desai, Ramesh Ashok Tabib, Uma Mudenagudi, Wenyi Lian, Wenjing Lian, Jagadeesh Kalyanshetti, Vijayalaxmi Ashok Aralikatti, Palani Yashaswini, Nitish Upasi, Dikshit Hegde, Ujwala Patil, Sujata C, Xingzhuo Yan, Wei Hao, Minghan Fu, Pooja choksy, Anjali Sarvaiya, Kishor Upla, Kiran Raja, Hailong Yan, Yunkai Zhang, Baiang Li, Jingyi Zhang, Huan Zheng
TL;DR
The NTIRE 2024 Low Light Enhancement Challenge targets robust LLIE under ultra-high-definition conditions by introducing a diverse 4K-ready dataset and a comprehensive benchmark with PSNR, SSIM, and LPIPS metrics. The participating methods span transformers, diffusion models, wavelet/Gaussian- and MLP-based architectures, and multi-scale patching strategies, with several teams leveraging Retinex-based frameworks and ensemble techniques to cope with UHD inputs. Key contributions include the demonstration of multi-scale and patch-based strategies for UHD LLIE, the adoption of diffusion- and diffusion-like entropy losses for perceptual quality, and the discussion of practical constraints such as memory and inference speed on consumer GPUs. The results provide a set of high-performing approaches and establish baselines that guide future LLIE research, dataset design, and deployment considerations on mobile and edge devices for realistic low-light scenarios.
Abstract
This paper reviews the NTIRE 2024 low light image enhancement challenge, highlighting the proposed solutions and results. The aim of this challenge is to discover an effective network design or solution capable of generating brighter, clearer, and visually appealing results when dealing with a variety of conditions, including ultra-high resolution (4K and beyond), non-uniform illumination, backlighting, extreme darkness, and night scenes. A notable total of 428 participants registered for the challenge, with 22 teams ultimately making valid submissions. This paper meticulously evaluates the state-of-the-art advancements in enhancing low-light images, reflecting the significant progress and creativity in this field.