Low-light image enhancement based on Retinex theory and dual-tree complex wavelet transform

In order to enhance the contrast of low-light images and reduce noise in them, we propose an image enhancement method based on Retinex theory and dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DT-CWT). The method first converts an image from the RGB color space to the HSV color space and decomposes the V-channel by dual-tree complex wavelet transform. Next, an improved local adaptive tone mapping method is applied to process the low frequency components of the image, and a soft threshold denoising algorithm is used to denoise the high frequency components of the image. Then, the V-channel is rebuilt and the contrast is adjusted using white balance method. Finally, the processed image is converted back into the RGB color space as the enhanced result. Experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively improve the performance in terms of contrast enhancement, noise reduction and color reproduction.