mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

DiffBIR: Towards Blind Image Restoration with Generative Diffusion Prior

arXiv 2308.15070 ↗First posted 29 Aug 2023cs.CVcited by 257

On the map: Diffusion models → Inverse problems and image restoration

Abstract (arXiv)

We present DiffBIR, a general restoration pipeline that could handle different blind image restoration tasks in a unified framework. DiffBIR decouples blind image restoration problem into two stages: 1) degradation removal: removing image-independent content; 2) information regeneration: generating the lost image content. Each stage is developed independently but they work seamlessly in a cascaded manner. In the first stage, we use restoration modules to remove degradations and obtain high-fidelity restored results. For the second stage, we propose IRControlNet that leverages the generative ability of latent diffusion models to generate realistic details. Specifically, IRControlNet is trained based on specially produced condition images without distracting noisy content for stable generation performance. Moreover, we design a region-adaptive restoration guidance that can modify the denoising process during inference without model re-training, allowing users to balance realness and fidelity through a tunable guidance scale. Extensive experiments have demonstrated DiffBIR's superiority over state-of-the-art approaches for blind image super-resolution, blind face restoration and blind image denoising tasks on both synthetic and real-world datasets. The code is available at https://github.com/XPixelGroup/DiffBIR.

Key facts. Cited by 257 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Inverse problems and image restoration, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 76 of its 97 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 29 Aug 2023.

Builds on

76 of 97 references.

Closest ancestors · 6

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2023Pixel-Aware Stable Diffusion for Realistic Image Super-resolution and Personalized Stylization28 Aug
  2. 2023Exploiting Diffusion Prior for Real-World Image Super-Resolution11 May
  3. 2023Generative Diffusion Prior for Unified Image Restoration and Enhancement3 Apr
  4. 2022DifFace: Blind Face Restoration with Diffused Error Contraction13 Dec
  5. 2022Zero-Shot Image Restoration Using Denoising Diffusion Null-Space Model1 Dec
  6. 2022Denoising Diffusion Restoration Models27 Jan

Other references · 70

  1. 2014Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimizationcited by 37,240
  2. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 21,076
  3. 2015U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentationcited by 19,713
  4. 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,863
  5. 2021Swin Transformer: Hierarchical Vision Transformer using Shifted Windowscited by 12,139
  6. 2018The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metriccited by 11,177
  7. 2020Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equationscited by 9,122
  8. 2021Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesiscited by 8,255
  9. 2022Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latentscited by 6,585
  10. 2022Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understandingcited by 6,355
  11. 2018A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 6,013
  12. 2022Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 5,627
38 more
  1. 2023Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 5,503
  2. 2017Neural Discrete Representation Learningcited by 4,712
  3. 2016Image-to-Image Translation with Conditional Adversarial Networkscited by 4,527
  4. 2022LAION-5B: An open large-scale dataset for training next generation image-text modelscited by 4,152
  5. 2019Generative Modeling by Estimating Gradients of the Data Distributioncited by 4,101
  6. 2021Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 3,761
  7. 2014Deep Learning Face Attributes in the Wildcited by 3,693
  8. 2019Analyzing and Improving the Image Quality of StyleGANcited by 3,588
  9. 2020Taming Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesiscited by 3,253
  10. 2016Photo-Realistic Single Image Super-Resolution Using a Generative Adversarial Networkcited by 1,908
  11. 2021SwinIR: Image Restoration Using Swin Transformercited by 1,887
  12. 2018Spectral Normalization for Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 1,636
  13. 2021Restormer: Efficient Transformer for High-Resolution Image Restorationcited by 1,627
  14. 2016Beyond a Gaussian Denoiser: Residual Learning of Deep CNN for Image Denoisingcited by 1,358
  15. 2023T2I-Adapter: Learning Adapters to Dig out More Controllable Ability for Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 1,351
  16. 2018ESRGAN: Enhanced Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 1,254
  17. 2016Real-Time Single Image and Video Super-Resolution Using an Efficient Sub-Pixel Convolutional Neural Networkcited by 1,204
  18. 2021MUSIQ: Multi-scale Image Quality Transformercited by 1,081
  19. 2022Exploring CLIP for Assessing the Look and Feel of Imagescited by 991
  20. 2021Real-ESRGAN: Training Real-World Blind Super-Resolution with Pure Synthetic Datacited by 970
  21. 2021Blended Diffusion for Text-driven Editing of Natural Imagescited by 927
  22. 2020Pre-Trained Image Processing Transformercited by 893
  23. 2021Uformer: A General U-Shaped Transformer for Image Restorationcited by 866
  24. 2021Designing a Practical Degradation Model for Deep Blind Image Super-Resolutioncited by 529
  25. 2022MANIQA: Multi-dimension Attention Network for No-Reference Image Quality Assessmentcited by 522
  26. 2017FFDNet: Toward a Fast and Flexible Solution for CNN based Image Denoisingcited by 510
  27. 2022Activating More Pixels in Image Super-Resolution Transformercited by 438
  28. 2019Toward Real-World Single Image Super-Resolution: A New Benchmark and A New Modelcited by 403
  29. 2018Recovering Realistic Texture in Image Super-resolution by Deep Spatial Feature Transformcited by 371
  30. 2020PULSE: Self-Supervised Photo Upsampling via Latent Space Exploration of Generative Modelscited by 358
  31. 2021Towards Real-World Blind Face Restoration with Generative Facial Priorcited by 349
  32. 2017Compressed Sensing using Generative Modelscited by 339
  33. 2015Sketch-based Manga Retrieval using Manga109 Datasetcited by 329
  34. 2018Toward Convolutional Blind Denoising of Real Photographscited by 274
  35. 2020Component Divide-and-Conquer for Real-World Image Super-Resolutioncited by 246
  36. 2022Towards Robust Blind Face Restoration with Codebook Lookup Transformercited by 231
  37. 2020Exploiting Deep Generative Prior for Versatile Image Restoration and Manipulationcited by 225
  38. 2021GAN Prior Embedded Network for Blind Face Restoration in the Wildcited by 197

50 most cited of 70 All 70 (JSON)

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 17; 2024: 123; 2025: 73; 2026: 44.

257 papers.

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  1. 2023SeeSR: Towards Semantics-Aware Real-World Image Super-Resolutioncited by 315
  2. 2024Scaling Up to Excellence: Practicing Model Scaling for Photo-Realistic Image Restoration In the Wildcited by 286
  3. 2024One-Step Effective Diffusion Network for Real-World Image Super-Resolutioncited by 246
  4. 2024Diffusion Model-Based Image Editing: A Surveycited by 212
  5. 2023Upscale-A-Video: Temporal-Consistent Diffusion Model for Real-World Video Super-Resolutioncited by 132
  6. 2023Controlling Vision-Language Models for Multi-Task Image Restorationcited by 110
  7. 2024Pixel-level and Semantic-level Adjustable Super-resolution: A Dual-LoRA Approachcited by 97
  8. 2024VmambaIR: Visual State Space Model for Image Restorationcited by 90
  9. 2024TSD-SR: One-Step Diffusion with Target Score Distillation for Real-World Image Super-Resolutioncited by 87
  10. 2024Arbitrary-steps Image Super-resolution via Diffusion Inversioncited by 86
  11. 2024Diffusion Models in Low-Level Vision: A Surveycited by 74
  12. 2024Degradation-Guided One-Step Image Super-Resolution with Diffusion Priorscited by 69
38 more
  1. 2023CoSeR: Bridging Image and Language for Cognitive Super-Resolutioncited by 66
  2. 2024AddSR: Accelerating Diffusion-based Blind Super-Resolution with Adversarial Diffusion Distillationcited by 66
  3. 2024DreamClear: High-Capacity Real-World Image Restoration with Privacy-Safe Dataset Curationcited by 65
  4. 2024Efficient Diffusion Model for Image Restoration by Residual Shiftingcited by 64
  5. 2024VEnhancer: Generative Space-Time Enhancement for Video Generationcited by 64
  6. 2024Towards Extreme Image Compression with Latent Feature Guidance and Diffusion Priorcited by 60
  7. 2024RadioDiff: An Effective Generative Diffusion Model for Sampling-Free Dynamic Radio Map Constructioncited by 56
  8. 2025STAR: Spatial-Temporal Augmentation with Text-to-Video Models for Real-World Video Super-Resolutioncited by 56
  9. 2024Adversarial Diffusion Compression for Real-World Image Super-Resolutioncited by 52
  10. 2023Multimodal Prompt Perceiver: Empower Adaptiveness, Generalizability and Fidelity for All-in-One Image Restorationcited by 50
  11. 2025SeedVR2: One-Step Video Restoration via Diffusion Adversarial Post-Trainingcited by 50
  12. 2024Diff-Plugin: Revitalizing Details for Diffusion-based Low-level Taskscited by 48
  13. 2023Neural Degradation Representation Learning for All-In-One Image Restorationcited by 46
  14. 2023Text2Immersion: Generative Immersive Scene with 3D Gaussianscited by 43
  15. 2024RestoreAgent: Autonomous Image Restoration Agent via Multimodal Large Language Modelscited by 43
  16. 2024An Intelligent Agentic System for Complex Image Restoration Problemscited by 43
  17. 2025UniRestore: Unified Perceptual and Task-Oriented Image Restoration Model Using Diffusion Priorcited by 42
  18. 2024XPSR: Cross-modal Priors for Diffusion-based Image Super-Resolutioncited by 41
  19. 2025One Diffusion Step to Real-World Super-Resolution via Flow Trajectory Distillationcited by 41
  20. 2024FlowIE: Efficient Image Enhancement via Rectified Flowcited by 38
  21. 2023Improving Image Restoration through Removing Degradations in Textual Representationscited by 36
  22. 2024DiffIR2VR-Zero: Zero-Shot Video Restoration with Diffusion-based Image Restoration Modelscited by 34
  23. 2024Posterior-Mean Rectified Flow: Towards Minimum MSE Photo-Realistic Image Restorationcited by 34
  24. 2024OSDFace: One-Step Diffusion Model for Face Restorationcited by 33
  25. 2024FaithDiff: Unleashing Diffusion Priors for Faithful Image Super-resolutioncited by 32
  26. 2024MISC: Ultra-low Bitrate Image Semantic Compression Driven by Large Multimodal Modelcited by 30
  27. 2024R-Bench: Are your Large Multimodal Model Robust to Real-world Corruptions?cited by 30
  28. 2025Compressed Image Generation with Denoising Diffusion Codebook Modelscited by 28
  29. 2025Visual-Instructed Degradation Diffusion for All-in-One Image Restorationcited by 26
  30. 2023SPIRE: Semantic Prompt-Driven Image Restorationcited by 24
  31. 2024MVIP-NeRF: Multi-view 3D Inpainting on NeRF Scenes via Diffusion Priorcited by 24
  32. 2024Teaching Tailored to Talent: Adverse Weather Restoration via Prompt Pool and Depth-Anything Constraintcited by 24
  33. 2025Perceive, Understand and Restore: Real-World Image Super-Resolution with Autoregressive Multimodal Generative Modelscited by 24
  34. 2023Image Super-Resolution with Text Prompt Diffusioncited by 23
  35. 2024RDEIC: Accelerating Diffusion-Based Extreme Image Compression with Relay Residual Diffusioncited by 23
  36. 2023Towards Real-World Blind Face Restoration with Generative Diffusion Priorcited by 22
  37. 2024Visual Text Generation in the Wildcited by 22
  38. 2024OFTSR: One-Step Flow for Image Super-Resolution with Tunable Fidelity-Realism Trade-offscited by 22

50 most cited of 257 All 257 (JSON)

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  1. 2023DiffBFR: Bootstrapping Diffusion Model Towards Blind Face Restoration
  2. 2025TD-BFR: Truncated Diffusion Model for Efficient Blind Face Restoration
  3. 2024Frequency-Aware Guidance for Blind Image Restoration via Diffusion Models
  4. 2025INDIGO+: A Unified INN-Guided Probabilistic Diffusion Algorithm for Blind and Non-Blind Image Restoration
  5. 2024Blind Image Restoration via Fast Diffusion Inversion
  6. 2025Diffusion Image Prior
  7. 2024A Modular Conditional Diffusion Framework for Image Reconstruction
  8. 2025AdaQual-Diff: Diffusion-Based Image Restoration via Adaptive Quality Prompting