Multiple-Aperture Photography for High Dynamic Range and Post-Capture Refocusing

In this article we present multiple-aperture photography, a new method for analyzing sets of images captured with different aperture settings, with all other camera parameters fixed. Using an image restoration framework, we show that we can simultaneously account for defocus, high dynamic range exposure (HDR), and noise, all of which are confounded according to aperture. Our formulation is based on a layered decomposition of the scene that models occlusion effects in detail. Recovering such a scene representation allows us to adjust the camera parameters in post-capture, to achieve changes in focus setting or depth of field—with all results available in HDR. Our method is designed to work with very few input images: we demonstrate results from real sequences obtained using the three-image “aperture bracketing” mode found on consumer digital SLR cameras.