arXiv · 2503.11262
Dark Noise Diffusion: Noise Synthesis for Low-Light Image Denoising
Abstract
Low-light photography produces images with low signal-to-noise ratios due to limited photons. In such conditions, common approximations like the Gaussian noise model fall short, and many denoising techniques fail to remove noise effectively. Although deep-learning methods perform well, they require large datasets of paired images that are impractical to acquire. As a remedy, synthesizing realistic low-light noise has gained significant attention. In this paper, we investigate the ability of diffusion models to capture the complex distribution of low-light noise. We show that a naive application of conventional diffusion models is inadequate for this task and propose three key adaptations that enable high-precision noise generation: a two-branch architecture to better model signal-dependent and signal-independent noise, the incorporation of positional information to capture fixed-pattern noise, and a tailored diffusion noise schedule. Consequently, our model enables the generation of large datasets for training low-light denoising networks, leading to state-of-the-art performance. Through comprehensive analysis, including statistical evaluation and noise decomposition, we provide deeper insights into the characteristics of the generated data.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Liying Lu, Raphaël Achddou, Sabine Süsstrunk. 2025-03-14. Dark Noise Diffusion: Noise Synthesis for Low-Light Image Denoising. https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.11262
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.