Abstract: In order to texture surfaces realistically with texture images (e.g. photos), it is important to consider the underlying relief. Here, a method is proposed to recover a coherent bump map from a single texture image. Different visual zones are first identified using segmentation and classification. Then, by linearly separating the relief into a noise-like small-scale component and a smooth "shape-related" large-scale component, we can automatically deduce the bump map as well as an "un-shaded" color map of the texture. The major advantage of our approach, compared to sophisticated measure-ment techniques based on multiple photos or specific devices, is its practical simplicity and broad accessibility, while it allows us to obtain very easily, via basic bump mapping or displacement mapping, rendering results of good quality.