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Schofield, Andrew J. and Rock, Paul B. and Georgeson, Mark A. (2012) Sun and Sky? Probing the Default Illuminant for Human Shape-from-Shading. In: Predicting Perceptions: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Appearance. Lulu Press, Edinburgh UK, pp. 172-176. ISBN 978-1-4716-6869-2

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Abstract

People perceive smooth luminance variations as being due to the shading produced by surface undulations: shape-from-shading. To do this the visual system must simultaneously estimate the nature of the illumination and the shape of the surface. Shape-from- shading operates even when both these properties are unknown and neither can be estimated directly from the image. In such circumstances humans are thought to adopt a default illumination model. It is widely held that the default illuminant is a point source located above the observer’s head, but some have argued that the default illuminant is a diffuse source. We present evidence that humans adopt an illumination model that includes both diffuse and directional (overhead) elements.

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