There are several databases and repositories that focus on providing true-to-life or natural color images, which are very useful for various applications such as computer vision, image processing, and machine learning. Here are a few notable ones:
ImageNet: While primarily known for its vast collection of images used for object recognition, ImageNet includes images that are often in natural colors. The dataset consists of over 14 million images, all annotated according to the WordNet hierarchy.
Flickr’s Creative Commons: Flickr offers a vast library of images under the Creative Commons license, many of which are true-to-life photos. You can sort these images by selecting those that have been tagged or categorized by photographers focusing on natural colors.
Open Access Image Databases from Museums: Many museums around the world, like The Metropolitan Museum of Art, have open access initiatives that release high-resolution images of artworks. While not entirely natural color in terms of object depiction, these images are often high fidelity and true to the original artworks’ colors.
COCO (Common Objects in Context): This dataset contains over 300,000 images, including natural scenes with a variety of objects that present real-world colors and contexts. COCO is particularly known for the diversity of its scenes and the contextual richness which makes it suitable for tasks requiring natural color understanding.
NASA’s Visible Earth: This is a catalog of NASA images and animations of our home planet. The images are taken by satellites and reflect the natural colors visible from space, making them suitable for anyone interested in Earth observation and atmospheric studies.
Pexels and Unsplash: These platforms offer free, high-quality stock photos taken by photographers around the world. Images on these sites are often in their natural colors and reflect high-quality photography.
When using images from any database, especially those involving creative works or proprietary content, it is important to adhere to the licensing and usage rights provided by the source. This ensures compliance with legal standards and respects the creators’ rights.