Lambertian reflectance

Lambertian reflectance refers to the property of a surface where the amount of light reflected is independent of the viewing angle. This results in a surface appearing equally bright from all viewing angles. Surfaces exhibiting Lambertian reflectance reflect light in a uniform manner, making them appear uniformly bright to a viewer.From: Digital Image Processing Methods [2020], A Review of Illuminance Mapping Practices from HDR Images and Suggestions for Exterior Measurements [2023]

Glossary of Computer Vision Terms

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Published in Edward R. Dougherty, Digital Image Processing Methods, 2020

Robert M. Haralick, Linda G. Shapiro

A Lambertian surface is a uniformly diffusing surface. It appears as a matt surface and it has a reflectance function which is a constant. The reflectance function of a Lambertian surface does not depend on the viewing angle and, therefore, a planar surface having a Lambertian reflectance appears equally bright from all viewing angles. For a Lambertian surface, the luminous intensity per unit area in a given direction varies as the cosine of the angle between the direction and the surface normal direction.

A Review of Illuminance Mapping Practices from HDR Images and Suggestions for Exterior Measurements

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Published in LEUKOS, 2023

Arpan Guha, Alayne Nyboer, Dale K. Tiller

The concept of a perfectly diffuse surface, also known as Lambertian surface, is used to approximate (and simplify) lighting calculations. Surfaces exhibiting Lambertian reflectance, as shown in Fig. 5, reflects light in a manner that makes it uniformly bright to a viewer.

Lambertian reflectance

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Glossary of Computer Vision Terms

A Review of Illuminance Mapping Practices from HDR Images and Suggestions for Exterior Measurements