Comparative Evaluation of No-Reference Image Quality Metrics for HDR-to-SDR Converted Images
Danko Curlin, Ivana Žeger, Mislav Grgić, Sonja Grgić · 2025
High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging captures a wider range of luminance and color than Standard Dynamic Range (SDR), enabling more faithful representations of real-world scenes. Since most displays only support SDR, HDR content must be converted to SDR, often resulting in perceptual distortions like unnatural contrast, loss of detail or color artifacts. This paper evaluates No-Reference Image Quality Assessment (NR-IQA) methods on SDR images derived from HDR using the ESPL-LIVE HDR Image Database, which includes tone-mapped images and images created by multi-exposure fusion, together with associated mean opinion scores (MOS) and standard deviations, providing a reliable ground truth for evaluation. Seven NR-IQA methods, both traditional and Deep Learning (DL)-based, were tested and compared. DL algorithms performed best, with prediction errors below the standard deviation of MOS. Despite moderate correlation values (around 0.5), the results demonstrate the potential of these methods for practical image quality monitoring.