Image color transfer with region matching based on IEC

Some research has been conducted on applying coloration of painterly art to a photographic image. Most of the proposed methods use some absolute criteria, e.g., the nearest distance in CIEL*a*b* color space, converting a color to another uniquely. However, we think that basic color transfer depends on the subjective feelings and sensitivities of users themselves. We describe an algorithm where every user can produce an original color-transformed image resulting from two inputs, which are a target photograph and a reference painting. Our algorithm is based on interactive evolutionary computation (IEC) and can produce a variety of color-transformed images semi-automatically. Some color-transformed examples similar to reference paintings are illustrated, and the searching efficiency of our method is discussed.