Goal Conditioned Reinforcement Learning for Photo Finishing Tuning
On the map: Deep reinforcement learning methods → RL with diffusion and flow models
Abstract (arXiv)
Photo finishing tuning aims to automate the manual tuning process of the photo finishing pipeline, like Adobe Lightroom or Darktable. Previous works either use zeroth-order optimization, which is slow when the set of parameters increases, or rely on a differentiable proxy of the target finishing pipeline, which is hard to train. To overcome these challenges, we propose a novel goal-conditioned reinforcement learning framework for efficiently tuning parameters using a goal image as a condition. Unlike previous approaches, our tuning framework does not rely on any proxy and treats the photo finishing pipeline as a black box. Utilizing a trained reinforcement learning policy, it can efficiently find the desired set of parameters within just 10 queries, while optimization based approaches normally take 200 queries. Furthermore, our architecture utilizes a goal image to guide the iterative tuning of pipeline parameters, allowing for flexible conditioning on pixel-aligned target images, style images, or any other visually representable goals. We conduct detailed experiments on photo finishing tuning and photo stylization tuning tasks, demonstrating the advantages of our method. Project website: https://openimaginglab.github.io/RLPixTuner/.
Key facts. Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in RL with diffusion and flow models, one of 15 directions in Deep reinforcement learning methods. Builds on 16 of its 37 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 10 Mar 2025.
Builds on
16 of 37 references.
References · 16
- 2014Very Deep Convolutional Networks for Large-Scale Image Recognitioncited by 15,364
- 2018The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metriccited by 11,177
- 2018A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 6,013
- 2022InstructPix2Pix: Learning to Follow Image Editing Instructionscited by 2,611
- 2018Addressing Function Approximation Error in Actor-Critic Methodscited by 2,417
- 2017Arbitrary Style Transfer in Real-time with Adaptive Instance Normalizationcited by 2,010
- 2017ZOO: Zeroth Order Optimization based Black-box Attacks to Deep Neural Networks without Training Substitute Modelscited by 666
- 2017Deep Bilateral Learning for Real-Time Image Enhancementcited by 200
- 2020pymoo: Multi-objective Optimization in Pythoncited by 200
- 2020Replacing Mobile Camera ISP with a Single Deep Learning Modelcited by 108
- 2019Unpaired Image Enhancement Featuring Reinforcement-Learning-Controlled Image Editing Softwarecited by 34
- 2020Joint Bilateral Learning for Real-time Universal Photorealistic Style Transfercited by 31
4 more
- 2021ReconfigISP: Reconfigurable Camera Image Processing Pipelinecited by 30
- 2019Automatic ISP image quality tuning using non-linear optimizationcited by 20
- 2022Transform your Smartphone into a DSLR Camera: Learning the ISP in the Wildcited by 9
- 2022RAWtoBit: A Fully End-to-end Camera ISP Networkcited by 6
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2025: 3; 2026: 3.
6 papers.
- 2025JarvisArt: Liberating Human Artistic Creativity via an Intelligent Photo Retouching Agentcited by 39
- 2026Fine-grained Image Aesthetic Assessment: Learning Discriminative Scores from Relative Rankscited by 5
- 2025RetouchLLM: Training-free Code-based Image Retouching with Vision Language Modelscited by 4
- 2026Towards In-Context Tone Style Transfer with A Large-Scale Triplet Datasetcited by 1
- 2025Learning to Clean: Reinforcement Learning for Noisy Label Correctioncited by 0
- 2026InstantRetouch: Efficient and High-Fidelity Instruction-Guided Image Retouching with Bilateral Spacecited by 0
- 2026InstantRetouch: Efficient and High-Fidelity Instruction-Guided Image Retouching with Bilateral Space3 Jun 2026
- 2026Towards In-Context Tone Style Transfer with A Large-Scale Triplet Dataset17 Apr 2026
- 2026Fine-grained Image Aesthetic Assessment: Learning Discriminative Scores from Relative Ranks4 Mar 2026
- 2025Learning to Clean: Reinforcement Learning for Noisy Label Correction25 Nov 2025
- 2025RetouchLLM: Training-free Code-based Image Retouching with Vision Language Models9 Oct 2025
- 2025JarvisArt: Liberating Human Artistic Creativity via an Intelligent Photo Retouching Agent21 Jun 2025
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2026RetouchIQ: MLLM Agents for Instruction-Based Image Retouching with Generalist Reward
- 2024InstructRL4Pix: Training Diffusion for Image Editing by Reinforcement Learning
- 2024Learning to Control Camera Exposure via Reinforcement Learning
- 2026Qwen-Image-2.0-RL Technical Report
- 2026Leveraging Verifier-Based Reinforcement Learning in Image Editing
- 2025EditScore: Unlocking Online RL for Image Editing via High-Fidelity Reward Modeling
- 2026BeautyGRPO: Aesthetic Alignment for Face Retouching via Dynamic Path Guidance and Fine-Grained Preference Modeling
- 2026Trust Your Critic: Robust Reward Modeling and Reinforcement Learning for Faithful Image Editing and Generation