Hello,
I am delving in the world of image processing and computer vision. Right now I am working with webcams to capture images that my programs manipulate.

I have noticed that that when an object moves into the field of view of the camera the brightness and colors in the frame received from the camera changes. If you look at the images included (before.jpg and after.jpg) you will notice that after a dark object is placed on the left hand side of the field of view of the camera the color and brightness in the image changes dramatically.

Do you know of any way to address this issue? Are there camera out there than don’t auto correct themselves or that give one more control of the settings of the camera? Are there ways to control the scene illumination myself by using infrared for example since the ambient lighting is somewhat variable?

I am really new to all this so any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

You should have a "manual" mode.

Check to see if your webcam software has manual options.

Look in the "setup", "options" or "properties"

There are likely radio buttons or check boxes that say "auto-correct", "auto-exposure" "auto-white balance"

Things like that.

Exposure compensation can be used too.

Turn off everything auto. Auto aperture and auto white balance are most likely what is causing your problems.