Don’t worry about it. Everyone has to start somewhere. I often feel the same way because for much of my life I have been around terrible people who say and do terrible things.
But you know what? When you continue to ask questions and investigate, eventually what you are pursuing will make sense. I believe you will figure this out with the help of the good people here.
Also, you need to be super hands-on. Until you get a feel for it, like riding a bicycle or anything really, any amount of theory won’t help you.
You are on the right track by reading papers online. However, they tend to be, well, scientific and esoteric, which is hard to understand from an intuitive level.
-
Before doing that I suggest that you do a quick search on this forum. If you type “retinex” or “haze”, you will get lots of threads and posts that ask very similar questions. E.g., my post.
-
A website I enjoy is http://www.ipol.im/.
It is excellent because its papers are quite simple in comparison to the meatier ones that you have linked to. Each paper comes with a demo and its source code, which you can play with at your leisure.
Take a look under the “Color and Contrast” topic category. Don’t just look at “retinex” but read the other papers as well to get a better understanding of the topic.
Hope this helps.