Instructor: John J. McCann, McCann Imaging
Level: Overview

Benefits:
This course enables the attendee to:

• Measure the optical limits in acquisition and display; in particular measure the scene dependent effects of optical glare.
• Compare the accuracy of scene capture using single and multiple-exposures in normal and RAW formats.
• Engage in a discussion of human spatial vision that responds to the retinal image altered by glare.
• Engage in a discussion of current HDR TV systems and standards: tone-rendering vs. spatial HDR methods.
• Explore the history of HDR imaging.

Course Description:
To understand HDR imaging is to understand the properties and limitations of the artist’s goal, the calculated sensation goal, and the accurate scene radiance goal.
This course emphasizes measurements of physics (accurate reproduction) and psychophysics (visual appearance). Physics shows limits caused by optical glare; HDR does not reproduce scene radiances. Psychophysics shows that human vision’s spatial-image-processing renders scene appearance. The course reviews successful HDR reproductions; limits of radiance reproduction; HDR TV’s technology and standards; appearance and display luminance; and appearance models. HDR technology is a complex problem controlled by optics, signal-processing, and visual limits. The solution depends on its goal: physical information or preferred appearance.

Intended Audience: Anyone interested in using HDR imaging: science, technology of displays, and applications. This includes students, color scientists, imaging researchers, medical imagers, software and hardware engineers, photographers, cinematographers, and production specialists.

John J. McCann worked in, and managed, Polaroid’s Vision Research Laboratory (1961-1996). He studied Retinex theory, color constancy, color from rod/cone interactions at low light levels, image reproduction, appearance with scattered light, cataracts, and HDR imaging. He is a Fellow of IS&T and the Optical Society of America (OSA, now Optica); a past president of IS&T and the Artists Foundation, Boston; the IS&T/OSA 2002 Edwin Land Medalist and an IS&T Honorary Member since 2005. In 2021 he received the Judd Award at the AIC International Congress in Milan.