UC Berkeley researchers develop artificial intelligence to remove shadows from photos

Whether eating out at a restaurant or taking a hike in nature, UC Berkeley doctoral candidate Cecilia Zhang always has a camera at hand. As a lover of visual media, Zhang noticed that individuals are becoming increasingly reliant on mobile phones to take photos and wanted to find a way to bridge the gap between casual portraits and those produced in a professional studio. In order to fulfill this need and push casual photography forward, Zhang and researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Google and UC Berkeley have developed a way to minimize natural and facial shadows from portraits using artificial intelligence, or AI. "After going through thousands of casual portraits in the internet, I realized there's a large issue with lighting and shadows," Zhang said. "Most people don't have access to professional equipment and can't get the environment to bend to their needs."