C126:

Perception

Lecture 5B
Light & Shadow

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Why study light and shadow?

The Incredibles

Pixar
Budget: $92 Million
Shadows, lighting: $ Millions & Months.

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 Light and Shadow

1. Discount the illuminant

2. Is it a shadow or a dark stain
3. Shadow analysis preattentive
4. Heuristics used to perceive shape from shading
5. Is it a reflection or a light spot

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 What’s the problem?
Our eye gets the light (L) reflected from a
surface and this is the product of the light’s
intensity (I) and the surface reflectance (R)
We see reflectance and light but only get their
product

L=IxR
Eye Eye
receives receives
L=80 L=80

Dim light R=80% Bright light

I=100 I=1000 R=8%
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 What’s the problem?

How do we do this?
Solve L = IxR for I and R
Given only a limited time frame, use independent
knowledge base, blinding speed and awesome
power
Using short cuts (heuristics), able to make crude
estimates of light and shadow at high speed.
These are good enough
Start with estimating light intensity (I)

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A visible shadow changes the
Lightness constancy
apparent light falling on a
surface
The light in the illuminated
area is taken as much
stronger

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 The light in the shadowed area
Lightness constancy
is taken as dimmer

Correcting (discounting) for

the illuminant can make two
areas that send equal
amount of light look very
different

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Lightness constancy

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 Lightness constancy
L=light (luminance), I=intensity (illuminant), R= reflectance

L=IxR
Measure L
WANT R,
(and want R to be
perceived as being constant!)
Infer I
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 Lightness constancy
L = 100
Infer I (so we can discount it) = 10
R = L/I = 10

L = 100
I = 100
R = L/I = 1

L = 10
I = 10
R = L/I = 1

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Lightness constancy

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Second
Example

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 L (what hits the eye) =IxR

Eye measures (L) L = 100

R = L/I
Infer Light (I) I = 100
R=?
Perceive (R)
R=1
R = 10

L = 100
I = 10
R=?

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 L (what hits the eye) =IxR

R = 100
R = 10

Eye measures (L) L = 100

Infer Light (I) I = 10
Perceive (R) R=?

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The Dress

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The Dress

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The Dress

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The Dress

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2. Is it a shadow or a dark stain?

Shadows are extremely complex shapes in the

scene determined by the direction of the
light, the shape of the object casting the
shadow and the surface on which it falls
Computer graphics can control and solve all of
these variables
Vision does not have the time
"Simple" rules to infer shadows

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Is this a shadow here?
What are the cues?
Darker but same color
Similar texture inside and
outside
X junctions of shadow and
surface contours
Many possible cues could be
used
But few are

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Shadows have X-junctions

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 No more X junctions!

Are these shadows or paint?

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 Unnatural Art

Artists discovered the simple rules for shadows when

they realized that paintings can capture 3D with
crude shadows and shading in physically impossible
arrangements.
Shadows can be wrong color, wrong shape, wrong
direction as long as they are darker and appear to
lie on the surface.

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 Definitions

Highlight

Shading

Shadow
Highlight: a reflection on a shiny surface
Shading: the variation in reflected light due to the change
in the orientation of the surface
Shadow: an area where light is blocked by an intervening
object
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French Mammoth (15K BCE)

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French Rhinoceros (33K BCE)

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Alexander greets Darius III
(200 BCE)

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Greek street musicians (100 BCE)

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Greek portraits of dead
Romans in Egypt (70 CE)

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 Lighting Errors (100 CE)

Impossible shadows (wrong directions) are not noticed

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Weird Shadows (300 CE)

These don’t work 37

Shadows with volume! Curvy, opaque shadows!
Shadows within shadows going opposite directions
These don’t work either
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 No
Shadows
(300 CE)

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 Still no
shadows
(1410 CE)

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Shadows reappear 1425

Roger Campin 41
 Renaissance 1400-1450

Good perspective

But lots of shadow errors42

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More
realistic
shadows and
light
followed in
later
paintings

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Even
capturing
two light
sources
from
opposite
windows

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Shadow found in only one painting in all
of eastern art up to modern era

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Doctored photos
provide more
examples:
Inconsistent
lighting goes
unnoticed

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48
Simple rules for a shadow

Shadow can have inappropriate shape 49

Simple rules for a shadow

Shadow can have inappropriate shape 50

Can be wrong direction Or wrong color

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 Shadow rules

Shadows can be wrong color, wrong shape,

wrong direction as long as they are
1. Darker, especially at edge
2. Appear to lie on the surface
a) Make X-junctions with contours of
surface on which they fall
b) Do not appear to have any thickness or
surface texture of their own

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A shadow should not
have a bounding
contour or appear to
have its own texture

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Shadowswrong
What’s need with
to make
this X
painting?
junctions with
other scene contours that they cross
Even other shadow contours!

Good
Detail from
“The
Assumption
of the Virgin
with Saints
Michael and
Benedict,”
Signorelli

Bad 54
 Shadow rules

Why do they work?

These rules can all be checked LOCALLY
Do not need to verify light and shadow
consistency across the whole scene
Efficient shortcut
Lets artists get away with inconsistencies

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3. Shadow analysis preattentive
Visual search shows that shadow information
worked out early
And then THROWN OUT!
Hard to find odd shadow
But easy if same shape is not shadow

Hard Easy 56
 4. Shape from shading
heuristics/assumptions
• Because more light usually comes from above the lower
regions of convex objects receive less light
• Our visual system depends on this implicit knowledge so
we can see 3D shapes

5 bumps 1 bump
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Lighting from above: Depth, figure/ground interpretation
depends on assumption of lighting from above.

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 Light from above

Dimples Bumps
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 5. Is it a reflection or a light spot

Just like a shadow, a

reflection does not
belong to the surface on
which it is seen
It changes if the observer
moves, or the scene
changes, or the object
moves

Sphere examples from Roland W. Fleming

60
Reflections are very
complex but only a
small set of reflection
properties are used to
decide if a surface is
reflecting or not
The reflected pattern
does not have to
match the pattern in
front very accurately

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62
The reflected pattern does not even have to match the
scene at all to be seen as a reflection and give the sphere
a glossy appearance

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 “Uffizi” White Noise

But it does need to have the properties of a typical

natural scene. A random pattern, or a negative pattern
lose the glossiness.

Reflections
St. Peter’s must be lighter

Positive Negative
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Reflections or paint?
Reflections do not move with
the object

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 Artists take shortcuts with reflections
Highlights and reflections add greatly to the realism of
materials
Artists know the reflection does not have to match the
scene but needs to follow the surface curves

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Reflections on horizontal surfaces fall on a
vertical line below each object

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This simple property allows even sketchy impressionist
paintings to capture the reflective quality of water

“Impression, Sunrise,” “The Grand Canal,”

Claude Monet. Claude Monet.

Note: there are no shadows on reflective surfaces

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A small highlight at one spot on a surface makes the whole
surface look glossy.
Remove the highlight or cover it with your finger and the
whole surface now looks matte (not glossy)

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70
 Artists often make errors in depicting what is
seen in mirrors
We seldom notice

Sense of Sight. 1600s

How can we see her face
in the mirror if she is The Earring. McEvoy.
looking at herself too?
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What is wrong here? 72
 Reflection Rules

Reflections can be the wrong shape, wrong color,

wrong scene, wrong angle but they must be:
1. Lighter than the surface they are seen on
2. Vertically aligned with reflected objects if
reflection is on a horizontal surface (water)
3. Natural

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 Summary
Discount the illuminant recovers the reflectance
Shadows need to be darker and lie on surface
Shadow analysis preattentive
can be because it is local
Reflections need to be lighter and typical

1 Minute Quiz

Fin

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