FlowLUT: Efficient Image Enhancement via Differentiable LUTs and Iterative Flow Matching
On the map: Diffusion models → Inverse problems and image restoration
Abstract (arXiv)
Deep learning-based image enhancement methods face a fundamental trade-off between computational efficiency and representational capacity. For example, although a conventional three-dimensional Look-Up Table (3D LUT) can process a degraded image in real time, it lacks representational flexibility and depends solely on a fixed prior. To address this problem, we introduce FlowLUT, a novel end-to-end model that integrates the efficiency of LUTs, multiple priors, and the parameter-independent characteristic of flow-matched reconstructed images. Specifically, firstly, the input image is transformed in color space by a collection of differentiable 3D LUTs (containing a large number of 3D LUTs with different priors). Subsequently, a lightweight content-aware dynamically predicts fusion weights, enabling scene-adaptive color correction with O(1) complexity. Next, a lightweight fusion prediction network runs on multiple 3D LUTs, with O(1) complexity for scene-adaptive color correction.Furthermore, to address the inherent representation limitations of LUTs, we design an innovative iterative flow matching method to restore local structural details and eliminate artifacts. Finally, the entire model is jointly optimized under a composite loss function enforcing perceptual and structural fidelity. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method on three benchmarks.
Key facts. Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Inverse problems and image restoration, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 28 of its 43 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 28 Sep 2025.
Builds on
28 of 43 references.
Closest ancestors · 2
Same direction, newest first
- 2025UniFlowRestore: A General Video Restoration Framework via Flow Matching and Prompt Guidance12 Apr
- 2024LightenDiffusion: Unsupervised Low-Light Image Enhancement with Latent-Retinex Diffusion Models12 Jul
Other references · 26
- 2015U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentationcited by 19,604
- 2018The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metriccited by 11,029
- 2022Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latentscited by 6,539
- 2022Flow Matching for Generative Modelingcited by 5,426
- 2024Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesiscited by 4,094
- 2022Flow Straight and Fast: Learning to Generate and Transfer Data with Rectified Flowcited by 3,550
- 2021Restormer: Efficient Transformer for High-Resolution Image Restorationcited by 1,618
- 2025Flow-GRPO: Training Flow Matching Models via Online RLcited by 605
- 2025Mean Flows for One-step Generative Modelingcited by 524
- 2020Retinex-inspired Unrolling with Cooperative Prior Architecture Search for Low-light Image Enhancementcited by 303
- 2017Deep Bilateral Learning for Real-Time Image Enhancementcited by 200
- 2020Learning Image-adaptive 3D Lookup Tables for High Performance Photo Enhancement in Real-timecited by 163
14 more
- 2021U-shape Transformer for Underwater Image Enhancementcited by 110
- 2022AdaInt: Learning Adaptive Intervals for 3D Lookup Tables on Real-time Image Enhancementcited by 70
- 2021Real-time Image Enhancer via Learnable Spatial-aware 3D Lookup Tablescited by 65
- 2022SepLUT: Separable Image-adaptive Lookup Tables for Real-time Image Enhancementcited by 50
- 2023Parallax-Tolerant Unsupervised Deep Image Stitchingcited by 30
- 2019FuseMODNet: Real-Time Camera and LiDAR based Moving Object Detection for robust low-light Autonomous Drivingcited by 26
- 2022Perceptual Image Enhancement for Smartphone Real-Time Applicationscited by 18
- 2025FLowHigh: Towards Efficient and High-Quality Audio Super-Resolution with Single-Step Flow Matchingcited by 18
- 2017Structure-Preserving Image Super-resolution via Contextualized Multi-task Learningcited by 15
- 2024Color Shift Estimation-and-Correction for Image Enhancementcited by 14
- 2025DnLUT: Ultra-Efficient Color Image Denoising via Channel-Aware Lookup Tablescited by 11
- 2024Joint RGB-Spectral Decomposition Model Guided Image Enhancement in Mobile Photographycited by 5
- 2024CE-VAE: Capsule Enhanced Variational AutoEncoder for Underwater Image Enhancementcited by 4
- 2025Efficient Point Clouds Upsampling via Flow Matchingcited by 4
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Citing papers per year: 2026: 3.
3 papers.
Similar, not cited
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- 2024FlowIE: Efficient Image Enhancement via Rectified Flow
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- 2026SpectralDiT: Timestep-Conditioned Spectral Residual Correction for Flow-Matching DiTs
- 20254KDehazeFlow: Ultra-High-Definition Image Dehazing via Flow Matching
- 2026AdaEdit: Adaptive Temporal and Channel Modulation for Flow-Based Image Editing
- 2025IllumFlow: Illumination-Adaptive Low-Light Enhancement via Conditional Rectified Flow and Retinex Decomposition
- 2025FlowOpt: Fast Optimization Through Whole Flow Processes for Training-Free Editing
- 2026PRISM: Distribution-Gated Flow Matching for Controllable Unpaired Image Translation