Abstract

While subsurface scattering is common in many real objects, almost all separation algorithms focus on extracting specular and diffuse components from real images. In this paper, we propose an appearance-based approach to separate non-directional subsurface scattering refiectance from photometric ima- ges, in addition to the separation of the off-specular and non-Lambertian diffuse components. Our mathematical model sufficiently accounts for the photometric response due to non-directional subsurface scattering, and allows for a practical image acquisition system to capture its contribution. Relighting the scene is possi- ble by employing the separated refiectances. We argue that it is sometimes neces- sary to separate subsurface scattering component, which is essential to highlight removal, when the object refiectance cannot be modeled by specular and diffuse components alone.