Enhanced Illumination Adjustment in 3D Outdoor Reconstructions via Shadow Removal through Color Transfer

The introduction of 3D reconstruction technology has revolutionized the digitization of real-world objects, from small artifacts to large-scale structures like buildings. This technology enables the rapid creation of virtual representations of the real world with minimal design expertise, offering a novel way to experience reality. However, it presents challenges such as baked-in illumination, which complicates subsequent relighting and integration into digital environments. This paper introduces a shadow removal algorithm, SRCT, that uses simulated lighting and color transfer techniques to reduce the visible effects of self- and cast shadows in the texture maps of 3D models resulting from the 3D reconstruction process. The effectiveness of this approach is validated through a comparison with existing shadow removal techniques. This validation utilizes a newly introduced dataset, EDEN, which comprises 3D reconstructions of buildings derived from drone imagery for qualitative evaluation, along with an additional dataset, Sunlit3D, featuring 3D reconstructions of buildings under various simulated lighting conditions for quantitative analysis.