Aftab Alpha v2.

1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

False Color Analysis Page

In this page, we can evaluate a HDR image visually or
analytically, with a variety of options. Some of them
are related to falsecolor and falsecolor2 options in
Radiance, while this page has more tools for analysis.
We can export the result in different image types. It
works for importing a HDR picture created by merging
a few images from a unique scene by different
exposure values in the software itself or other HDR
creator software, or an image made in Radiance
based on luminance (Cd/m2) - radiance (W/m2) or
illuminance (Lux) – irradiance(W/m2xsr).

Software Starting:

In the Aftab main page, select Radiance image type

(HDR, or PIC) and drag it in the selection panel. Then,
click on the ‘False-Color Pics’ button to enter the false
color analysis page.

In this page, we can modify, adjust and also preview the imported HDR image
for further analysis in the false color analysis page.

With pressing this button if we open the HDR file from Aftab
main page, we return to its main page, while if we open the
file directly from the false color analysis page, we go back to
the browsing file page.

This button close the import modification page, and we

return to the false color analysis page.

With pressing this button, we import the selected

HDR Image to the falsecolor analysis main page.

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

Here, we can check and change the image resolution. If the ‘Lock’ button is
available, by changing the X size, the image proportion is kept.

However, it the ‘Unlock’ button is available, we can change the image

proportion based on our needs. So, it is possible to change the image size in
both X and Y direction.

If the Automatic FalseColor option is set to Off, the selected HDR image is
imported as it is and for each function, the software will calculate based on
the input data. While if we set this option to On, the software start to make
nine falsecolor with different scales. So, it the main false color page, we can
quickly check those falsecolor image and we can make other analysis based
on the chosen scale.

When we set the option to On, the ‘F.C Label’ text control that used for
labeling the falsecolor image becomes available to change or modify it.

The reddish highlighted area is used to preview the HDR image.

This button rotates the HDR image in a counter clockwise direction.

This button flips the HDR image horizontally.

This button flips the HDR image vertically.

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

False Color analysis main page:

Here, we can make different types of false color

images and some other analysis for HDR images
created by merging different pictures of a unique
scene with various exposure values or made by
Radiance.

B: F means foreground image used as the source of values

and B means background image applied as the picture to
overlay with contours.
Foreground image is imported by ‘Open HDR/Pic file’
button.
Background image is imported by ‘Open Back [Link]’
button.

This shows the cursor position in X and Y in the display panel.

This shows the image value on the cursor position in the display panel.
The value shown here is specifies in the ‘label text selection box’ and
it could be one of these: ‘Cd/m2’, ‘Lux’, ‘W/[Link]’, or ‘W/m2’.

False Color Options part:

In the following all the buttons and text controls plus to the
histogram panel will be explained in detail.

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

With pressing this button, we can open

the browsing file page. In this new
page, we can open and import HDR
image files. The file imported via this
panel used as the source of values for
all false-color or other visual analysis.

When opening a file here, the file

address appears on the display panel as
foreground image.

In addition to HDR and PIC extension files that can be imported to the false color analysis page, Radiance
points data files with DAT extension can be imported for doing some analysis that will be described later
in this section.

This button opens a panel to define background image applied as the picture to
overlay with contours.

Here, we have two options. First is to open

the browsing file page. In this browsing page,
we can import an HDR image as a background
image. The imported background image should have exactly the
same as the foreground image. Otherwise the following page as an
error page appears on the screen.

Here, it is worth to say that firstly, the background image is

applicable just for contour-line. Moreover, it should be mentioned
that for making effective the background image when making
contour-line images, the ‘Show BackGr.’ button must be on.

With clicking on this button, the software

used a tone-mapped image out of the
foreground image as background image.
When choosing this potion instead of address file of background
image, this sentence appears in the front of B on the display panel:
‘Tone mapping of the foreground image’.

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

With pressing this button, the

browsing file page will be opened.

Normally this option is used when the HDR image is

created by Radiance based on both Luminance and
Illuminance calculation. By importing Illuminance based
Radiance file as foreground image and then importing its
corresponding luminance based Radiance file as
background, the contour-line and false-color analysis
seems visually much better.

This picture is created based on Illuminance by Radiance.

So all values shown in this image is Lux.

This picture is created based on luminance by Radiance. So

all values shown in this image is Cd/m2.

This image is a contour-line analysis image for an illuminance

based Radiance image as a foreground image.

With adding a luminance based Radiance image as a

background image to an illuminance based one and activate
this button ( ), we can arrive to an image like
the front image.

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

This button open the browsing page

to save the image output as different
types of picture files like JPG, BMP,
GIF, TIF, and PNG or Radiance files like
HDR or PIC.

With pressing close button, we will exit the false color analysis page and go back
to Aftab main page.

By checking the checkbox, most of the falsecolor options become unavaible while
the slider under the button is enable and we can adjust the slider and
automatically scale the falsecolor image between minimum to maximum
reasonable level. However, The starting point of slider shows the original picture
of the image.

Here, it is worth to say that, if we set the automatic falsecolor ‘On’ in the import
modification page, the sofware creates the falsecolor when openning the file, so,
it does not take time to calculate. Additionally, when the Automatic FalseColor is
set to ‘On’ the ‘F.C. Lable’ text control box becomes availabe. Therefore, in that
box, we can modify the label in all falsecolor image when we adjust the slider for
creating automatically the false-color images.

With pressing this button each time, the software create a new false color image
based on falsecolor given specifications.

With pressing this button we can hide or show the falsecolor scale legend.

This command will be defined in the next updated tutorial.

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

With Choosing ‘Normalize’ and then pressing , the image shown in the display
panel will be tone-mapped with histogram adjustment.

With Choosing ‘[Link] Resp.’ and then pressing , the image shown in the
display panel will be simulated based on human visual response.

Original Image ‘Normalize’ ‘[Link] Resp.’

By activating this button, it causes extrema points to be printed on
the brightest and darkest pixels of the input picture.

By selecting this option, contour lines are desired rather than just
false color images.

By choosing this option, it produces contour bands instead of lines,

where the thickness of the bands is related to the rate of change in
the image.

then it will be used both as the source of values and as the picture to
overlay with contours

A maximum scale for creating falsecolor image can be given with this text control box.

The minimum value when creating falsecolor image can be given in this text box.

This choice control box is for selecting the legend used when making false color
images with a label given by it. It is more useful, when creating HDR image by
Radiance software based on Luminance, Illuminance, Radiance, Irradiance, or Daylight
Factor that their corresponding units are Cd/m2, Lux, W/[Link], W/m2, and DF
respectively. Finally its last option is Custom that allow us to have add our cutomize
label too. there is custom.

Here, we can change the number of contours (and corresponding legend entries) used
for creating false color images.

In this text box, a different multiplier can be given to the image that temporarily
multiplies all pixel values by this new number when creating false color images.

This option masks all values below minimum value defined in

this box with the background color (black).

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

For a logarithmic rather than a linear mapping when creating false color images,
the option can be used, where decades is the number of decades below the
maximum scale desired.

Mean Value: Average pixel values for whole the image.

Maximum Value: Maximum vlaue in the image.
Minimum Value: Minimum vlaue in the image.

Here we can change the pixel value from luminance / illuminance values to the
followings (if the HDR image is not created by a photo realistic rendering software
like Raadiance, etc., we need to specify the camera sensor size to define its
relevant view):
Minimum Angle: the angle between the selected pixel in the scene and the line
of sight.
Altitude Angle: the angle the selected pixel and the horizontal surface that
includes the line of sight.
Str. Angle: by selecting an area in the scene, it give us the total steradian angle
of that area.
Pixel Index: it shows the position index of each selected pixel.

Minimum angle Altitude angle

When a false color calculation is finished and its relevant false color image is
shown on the display panel, image histogram appears on the histgram panel.

By moving the mouse cursor, its shape changes to a

magnifier one. In this case, we can click on the histogram
panel to open ‘Show Diagram Panel’

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

‘Show Diagram Panel’ page is divided

to two sections.

The left part shows some numerical

analysis (Highlighted with reddish
line). While the right easily
distinguished by its black background
show the image histogram based on
division numbers and colors in the
falsecolor image (Highlighted with
yellowish line).

Mean Value: Average pixel values for whole the image.

Maximum Value: Maximum vlaue in the image.
Minimum Value: Minimum vlaue in the image.
The upper limit shows the maximum values when creating false color images.
The lower limit is always zero.
The number of contours (and corresponding legend entries) used for creating
false color images.
Each number, with the same interval, specifies the lower level and upper level
defined in the false color image and then percentage area being in this range
in the image.
If this number is not 100, the remaining shows the percentage area between
upper level of last number and pixel peak value. For example, in this picture,
as 76.76 le less than 100, (100–76.76)=23.24% of image area is in the range
between 200 and 1505.39 .

Here, this histogram diagram shows a summary graph counting data

points falling in the falsecolor division ranges. The horizontal
numerical text is the mean value for each range. At first, the
maximum value in the vertical
axis is 100, while with mouse
right click the vertical axes is
zoomed to fit.

Histogram diagram after being zoomed to fit by mouse right click

Toolbar:

The same as . With pressing these buttons, we can open a new HDR file.

The same as . With pressing these buttons, we can open import a background HDR
image applied as the picture to overlay with contours.

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

The same as . With pressing this button, we can save the file with different extensions.

With pressing this button, we can copy the image on display panel to the computer’s clipboard.
However all the pixel values will not copied together with the image to the clipboad.
(Unfotunately, this option is not available in this version)

With pressing this button, we can copy the image on display panel together with pixel vaules on
the display panel to the clipboard. (Unfotunately, this option is not available in this version)

With pressing this button, the diplay panel will be cleaned.

As soon as clicking on a point on the image in the display panel,

pixel value appears on the screen and also this button becomes
availabel. Then by pressing the button, the ‘Point brightness input
panel’ will be opened. In the text box, the pixel value is shown. So,
with giving a new value to this number, all the image values proportionally changes. For example,
if the existed value is 993.36 and we give a new value of 1200 in the text box, all the pixel values
on the image multiplies by (1200/993.36 = 1.2080)

With pressing this button, all the change on the image values done in ‘Point brightness input
panel’ we be restored to its origin.

With clicking on this button, we can

change diplaying value from brightness
values to RGB or vice versa.

Croping the selected area in the image

Bring the original size of the image (before cropping)

When we crop the image by pressing this button ( ) we can exclude all black points from
measuring the average and minimum value.

Bring the original size of the image (before cropping)

Select a rectangular area

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

Select a circular area

Select a polygonal area, Starting and finishing the polygon drawing.

Polygon selection Rectangular selection Circular selection

Showing the total area of the selected region by calculating

the number pixels kept in the select region.

When this button ( ) is availabe, it works the same as . However, when

any kinds of false color image is on the display panel, the button changes to . So, with
clicking on the button ( ), the image on the display panels restore to its origin.

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

Here we can choose different color palletes for the false color image.

- This option works well when we have 180° fisheye lens. By pressing this button, at first,
we go to ”Camera sensor size page”. Then, we have three options. The first one (Field of
view: None) is about cropping the image based on conical angle (“Angle list”). One of
the most useful function of this choice is to use when we want to measure the access
zone luminance (L20) that is recommended by the guide for the lighting of road tunnels
and underpasses CIE 88:2004. However the second and third options are Cut-Out field
of view that are according to Guth1 (total field of view and field of view seen by both
eyes respectively)

1
Guth,Light and Comfort, Industrial Medicine and Surgery, November 1958

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

When measuring the mean and minimum values, this button ( ) means that the
software consider the whole image, while this button ( ) means that calculating the
mean and minimum values are based on excluding all pixels with zero value. For example
we can use this option when imporing an 180° fisheye image or for the cropped images.

In the text box ( ), we can set the exposure adjustment for the picture. All the pixel
values in the picture is multiplied by this new number. By pressing the green triangle
button ( ), we can affect the image by this new exposrue value.

By clicking on this button, we filter the image with more sharpness and constrast.

Before filtering the image After filtering

With pressing this buton, we change

the image to a wireframe image with
white color in the background and
black color in the foreground.

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

With pressing this buton, we change

the image to a wireframe image with
black color in the background and black
color in the foreground.

By clicking on this button, we filter the

image with more detail.

Give the selected area new values.

+
Select all pixels greater than this specified value, and change them to the new absolute value.

+
Select all pixels lower than this specified value, and change them to the new absolute value.

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

+
Select all pixels lower than this specified value, and then multiplying each pixel value by this new value.

Activationg orthogonal selection in polygonal selction ( ) tool.

Camera sensor size page:

Here in this page, we can define the type of view

needed by other functions of the software.

Here we can define if the lens that the image

is taken by is a 180° fisheye lens or not.

If we select “Without a Fish Eye Lens”, then

it asked us to fill the “Sensor Size X” and
“Sensor Size Y”. If we do not know the sizes,
we can click the link (highlighted with blue
color) and find the camera and then find its
relevant sensor size.

Here we can define the view type

(Perspective, Hemispheric, or angular
fisheye). Generally the most of the comon
lenses used for photography are belonged to Perspective (vtv). While for the
180° degree fisheye lens, lenses like “Sigma 4.5mm f/2.8 EX DC” are belonged
to angular (vta).

Here we define the horizontal and vertical angle of the view. However, if you
do not crop or unproportionally resize the image, usually the software itself calculates it based on the
camera sensor size.

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

Color-balance the image as if it were illuminated by fixtures of the given type.

For more information please check pfilt -> -t lamp, and -f lampdat from these
links:

[Link]

[Link]

White: If "white" is specified, the lamp will be uncolored. This is probably

preferable for scenes with only a single variety of lamp in order to produce
color-balanced images.

Customize: Here we can specify a customized lamp

specification with three real numbers between 0 and 1: x y
and m, where x and y are the CIE chromaticity coordinates
and m is the lumen depreciation factor (multiplier to get
mean lumen output from initial lumens).

RGB Customize: Here we

can filter Red, Green and Blue color of the image by changing the
relevant slider between 0 for zero percent and 100 when we want to
keep that chanel as its original value.

Correlated Color Temperature: Based on a formulla that can be found from

the below link, it converts the image to a CCT based image to measure the CCT
value of each pixel. (Its accuracy has not evaluated yet.)

[Link]

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

Original image CCT based image CCT based Falsecolor image Modify the CCT based
Falsecolo image in
Photoshop
To make a CCT based falsecolor image, first we need to convert the image to CCT through Menu -> Filter
-> Correlated Color Temp., then in the palletes dropdown menu, CCT will be added and can be selected
to make a falsecolor image. The scale in CCT based Falsecolor image is fixed between 1500k and 28500k
and can be changed.

Here we can convert the the luminance values every pixels in the image to a
brightness value by specifying a exponent value. The default exponent value is
1.0/3.0 or 0.333333.2 3 (For more infromation, please check the following
diagram)

luminance-brightness power relationship

based on an exponent of 1/32

Here we can reset all the changes on the image.

2
DiLaura D L, Houser K W, Mistrick R G, Steffy G R, Illuminating Engineering Society, The Lighting Handbook, Tenth
Edition, New York, Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, 2011, page 4.10
3
Peter Robert Boyce, Human Factors in Lighting, Third Edition, CRC Press, Boca Raton Fl, 2014, page 198

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

To approximate the appearance of a high dynamic range image in a low

dynamic range image, here these 5 tone-mapping operators can applied.

Human contrast sensitivity: Here the image will be tone-mapped with human vision simulation.

Center-weighted average: Here the image will be tone-mapped with using a center-weighted average
for the exposure rather than the uniform average. This may improve the exposure for scenes with high
or low peripheral brightness.

Tone-mapping the image based on the Erik Reinhard's simple global tone-operator.

[Link]

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

“Aftab Type a” tone-mapping.

“Aftab Type b” tone-mapping.

All tools that here are about filtering the image by combining, multyplying, or
subtracting with one or more HDR images. If their resolution are not matched it asks
you to match them, then a new image will be created by myltiplying them by each
other.

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Multiply/mask: It is about filtering the original HDR images by a binary image that
has the same resolution.

Combine/add: It is about creating an image in which each pixel value is produced by

adding the pixel values of all the selected HDR images.

+ +

+ +

In this command, we should be aware if some lights are existed in every images, because they are
cummulated in the final images.

Combine/int: It is about creating an image in which each pixel value is produced by

finding the maximum pixel values between every selected HDR images.

+ +

+ +

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Combine/subFrom1st: It is about creating an image in which each pixel value is

produced by subtracting the pixel values of the first (primary) image from the other
HDR images.

Combine/auto: In work properly with this option, at first, we need to open the
image that took before adding any new fixture (an image with an existing lighting
condition), then add other images with new fixtures and positions (it is very useful
when we do not have enough luminaires to test in a real scene, so we need to take
photos for each position and then move around the scene and take more photos).

So in the end we create an image showing the scene when we have all the fixtures in their right position.
For example in the example in the below, we have only one inground uplight fixtures, then we move the
luminaire in 4 4 different positions and took photos for each position. However the first image that
should be opened is the image showing the scene with the existing light conditions.

Existing condition: (we need to open this file at fisrt)

Adding one unground uplight fixture in 4 different positions: (with pressing combine/auto in menu ->
Tools, we can add the new files including images showing different positions for the fixture)

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Aftab Alpha v2.1 / False Color Analysis Page Help File (draft version)

The output of Combine/auto: (Both true color and falsecolor images are similar to an image taken when
we have 4 fixtures placing them in right position.)

Combine/reset: This option reset all changes in the image to the original values

Image statistics: This option gives us some statistic values for the image such as
mean value, maximum value (Absolute max. value), minimum value (Absolute min. value), min/max
value, min/mean value, Median value, Standard Deviation. Moreover by defining a value in the input
box “Selected min. value” ( ) and pressing the refresh button ( ), we can see
here ( ) how much of the image is below this value. In the same way, by defining a
value in the input box “Selected max. value” ( ) and pressing the refresh
button ( ), we can see here ( ) how much of the image is below this value. Finally
with checking “Exclude black pixels” ( ) it exclude all the black points with zero values
when measuring mean and minimum values.

Shortcuts and mouse buttons:

In the main page:

Shift + mouse left click: Start to draw a polygon selection area

Ctrl + mouse left click: Finish the polygon selection area drawing

Alt + mouse left click: Start to draw a circular selection area

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mouse right click: Undo the last selection point or area

In the Show Diagram Panel:

mouse right click: Zoom in and zoom out the diagram

In the main page but when we cropped the image:

Ctrl + mouse left click: Zoom in and zoom out the image

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