Image compensation for an occluding direct-view augmented reality system is described. In one or more embodiments, an augmented reality apparatus includes an emissive display layer for presenting emissive graphics to an eye of a user and an attenuation display layer for presenting attenuation graphics between the emissive display layer and a real-world scene to block light of the real-world scene from the emissive graphics. A light region compensation module dilates an attenuation graphic based on an attribute of an eye of a viewer, such as size of a pupil, to produce an expanded attenuation graphic that blocks additional light to compensate for an unintended light region. A dark region compensation module camouflages an unintended dark region with a replica graphic in the emissive display layer that reproduces an appearance of the real-world scene in the unintended dark region. A camera provides the light data used to generate the replica graphic.