# Bracket Diffusion: HDR Image Generation by Consistent LDR Denoising

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.14304 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.14304/

## Key facts

- Cited by 15 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 46 of its 78 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 23 May 2024.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Inverse problems and image restoration](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/inverse-problems-and-image-restoration/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 46)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13456/) (2020)
- [Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05233/) (2021)
- [Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.03585/) (2015)
- [GLIDE: Towards Photorealistic Image Generation and Editing with Text-Guided Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10741/) (2021)
- [DreamFusion: Text-to-3D using 2D Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14988/) (2022)
- [Image Super-Resolution via Iterative Refinement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.07636/) (2021)
- [RePaint: Inpainting using Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.09865/) (2022)
- [Diffusion Posterior Sampling for General Noisy Inverse Problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14687/) (2022)
- [Diffusion Models: A Comprehensive Survey of Methods and Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.00796/) (2022)
- [Denoising Diffusion Restoration Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11793/) (2022)
- [MultiDiffusion: Fusing Diffusion Paths for Controlled Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.08113/) (2023)
- [StyleGAN-XL: Scaling StyleGAN to Large Diverse Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.00273/) (2022)
- [Learning to See in the Dark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.01934/) (2018)
- [Denoising Diffusion Models for Plug-and-Play Image Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.08995/) (2023)
- [DreamSim: Learning New Dimensions of Human Visual Similarity using Synthetic Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.09344/) (2023)
- [NeRF in the Dark: High Dynamic Range View Synthesis from Noisy Raw Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.13679/) (2021)
- [Generative Diffusion Prior for Unified Image Restoration and Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.01247/) (2023)
- [HDR image reconstruction from a single exposure using deep CNNs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.07480/) (2017)
- [Solving Linear Inverse Problems Provably via Posterior Sampling with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.00619/) (2023)
- [Single-Image HDR Reconstruction by Learning to Reverse the Camera Pipeline](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.01179/) (2020)
- [Attention-guided Network for Ghost-free High Dynamic Range Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.10293/) (2019)
- [HDR-NeRF: High Dynamic Range Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.14451/) (2021)
- [SyncDiffusion: Coherent Montage via Synchronized Joint Diffusions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.05178/) (2023)
- [Deep High Dynamic Range Imaging with Large Foreground Motions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.08937/) (2017)
- [ExpandNet: A Deep Convolutional Neural Network for High Dynamic Range Expansion from Low Dynamic Range Content](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.02266/) (2018)
- [HDR-GAN: HDR Image Reconstruction from Multi-Exposed LDR Images with Large Motions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.01628/) (2020)
- [Any-resolution Training for High-resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.07156/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 15 of 15)

- [LEDiff: Latent Exposure Diffusion for HDR Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.14456/) (2024)
- [AIM 2025 challenge on Inverse Tone Mapping Report: Methods and Results](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.13479/) (2025)
- [X2HDR: HDR Image Generation in a Perceptually Uniform Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.04814/) (2026)
- [DiffHDR: Re-Exposing LDR Videos with Video Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.06161/) (2026)
- [HDR Video Generation via Latent Alignment with Logarithmic Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.11788/) (2026)
- [VidSplat: Gaussian Splatting Reconstruction with Geometry-Guided Video Diffusion Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.11424/) (2026)
- [PhysHDR: When Lighting Meets Materials and Scene Geometry in HDR Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.16869/) (2025)
- [HDR Reconstruction Boosting with Training-Free and Exposure-Consistent Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.19706/) (2026)
- [RawGen: Learning Camera Raw Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.00093/) (2026)
- [Linear Image Generation by Synthesizing Exposure Brackets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.21008/) (2026)
- [LatentHDR: Decoupling Exposure from Diffusion via Conditional Latent-to-Latent Mapping for Text/Image-to-Panoramic HDR](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.11115/) (2026)
- [Single-Shot HDR Recovery via a Video Diffusion Prior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.11628/) (2026)
- [Coarse-to-fine Framework for Generative MEF via Implicit Neural Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.17611/) (2026)
- [LumaGuide: Distribution Shaping for Training-Free HDR Generation in Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.26237/) (2026)
- [Recurrent Dynamic Range Extension](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.13135/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We demonstrate generating HDR images using the concerted action of multiple black-box, pre-trained LDR image diffusion models. Relying on a pre-trained LDR generative diffusion models is vital as, first, there is no sufficiently large HDR image dataset available to re-train them, and, second, even if it was, re-training such models is impossible for most compute budgets. Instead, we seek inspiration from the HDR image capture literature that traditionally fuses sets of LDR images, called "exposure brackets'', to produce a single HDR image. We operate multiple denoising processes to generate multiple LDR brackets that together form a valid HDR result. The key to making this work is to introduce a consistency term into the diffusion process to couple the brackets such that they agree across the exposure range they share while accounting for possible differences due to the quantization error. We demonstrate state-of-the-art unconditional and conditional or restoration-type (LDR2HDR) generative modeling results, yet in HDR.