Understanding Color Memory: A Study of Skin Tone Perception in Hue, Intensity, and Chroma
Perceptually, one of the strongest memory colors is skin tone. Get it wrong and it is hard to miss. Image adjustments are commonly applied for preference-based image enhancement. Because these adjustments are performed across a variety of color spaces, it is important to understand their effects on skin tone appearance. In this article, results of a psychovisual experiment that explores the perception of skin tone under changes in hue, chroma, and intensity are presented. By combining the effects each axis has on the perception of different skin tones, viewer expectations of color appearance can be evaluated. The experimental results convey a low tolerance for changes in hue when altering intensity and chroma and a high tolerance for changes in intensity across all adjustments. When altering intensity, the results present changes in chroma that follow the shape of the ITU-R BT.2124 (ITP) gamut hull. There was some variability between skin tones. This speaks to how individual skin tone classification may be helpful to preserve appearance following adjustment.
- Print ISSN
- 1545-0279
- Electronic ISSN
- 2160-2492
- Published
- 2023-07
- Content type
- Original Research
- Keywords
- Chroma, hue, image processing, intensity, psychovisual experiment, skin tone
- DOI
- 10.5594/JMI.2023.3277107