Abstract
Self-blended images are widely used to train face-swap detectors, but primarily capture blending artifacts. We investigate whether adding illumination inconsistencies improves detection. Temporal Self-Blended Images (T-SBI) transfer lighting statistics between frames of the same video, with the mismatch controlled by luminance difference (ΔL). Using five training regimes and a three-seed comparison of high- and low-ΔL training, we find no evidence of illumination-specific improvements. AUC differences remain within seed variability across four datasets, and an analysis of 506,328 attribute-binned samples shows no preferential reduction in errors under harsh lighting. Instead, T-SBI shifts prediction scores, changing optimal thresholds by approximately 0.34 on FaceForensics++ and 0.30 on Celeb-DF, making comparisons at a fixed threshold misleading. However, T-SBI improves robustness to heavy JPEG compression on DFDC (AUC 0.780 versus 0.696), potentially reflecting greater reliance on low-frequency cues. These findings highlight the importance of evaluating training methods against their intended targets and accounting for threshold effects.
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Publication details
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- Open access
- Green open access
Cite this article
APA 7
Davydov, D., Rasheed, B., & Vatolin, D. (2026). Does an Illumination Prior Help Face-Swap Detection? A Controlled Study of Temporal Self-Blended Images. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/does-an-illumination-prior-help-face-swap-detection-a-controlled-study-of-temporal-self-blended-images
MLA 9
Davydov, Danil, et al. "Does an Illumination Prior Help Face-Swap Detection? A Controlled Study of Temporal Self-Blended Images." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/does-an-illumination-prior-help-face-swap-detection-a-controlled-study-of-temporal-self-blended-images.
Chicago (author–date)
Davydov, Danil, Bader Rasheed, and Dmitriy Vatolin. 2026. "Does an Illumination Prior Help Face-Swap Detection? A Controlled Study of Temporal Self-Blended Images." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/does-an-illumination-prior-help-face-swap-detection-a-controlled-study-of-temporal-self-blended-images.
Harvard
Davydov, D., Rasheed, B. and Vatolin, D. (2026) 'Does an Illumination Prior Help Face-Swap Detection? A Controlled Study of Temporal Self-Blended Images', Available at: https://omanscience.com/en/articles/does-an-illumination-prior-help-face-swap-detection-a-controlled-study-of-temporal-self-blended-images.
Vancouver
Davydov D, Rasheed B, Vatolin D. Does an Illumination Prior Help Face-Swap Detection? A Controlled Study of Temporal Self-Blended Images. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/does-an-illumination-prior-help-face-swap-detection-a-controlled-study-of-temporal-self-blended-images
IEEE
D. Davydov, B. Rasheed, and D. Vatolin, "Does an Illumination Prior Help Face-Swap Detection? A Controlled Study of Temporal Self-Blended Images," https://omanscience.com/en/articles/does-an-illumination-prior-help-face-swap-detection-a-controlled-study-of-temporal-self-blended-images.