Image Processing

Chapter(3)
Part 2:Intensity Transformation and
spatial filters

Prepared by: Hanan Hardan

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Image Enhancement?

Enhancement ‫تحسين الصورة‬: is to process an image

so that the result is more suitable than the
original image for a specific application.
 Enhancement techniques are so varied, and use
so many different image processing approaches
 The idea behind enhancement techniques is to
bring out details that are hidden, or simple to
highlight certain features of interest in an image.

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Image Enhancement?
 If we used 256 intensities of grayscale then:
- In dark image the most of pixels value <128
- In bright image the most of pixels value>128
Let x:old image
S:new image
S=x+c where c is constant value
>> S=imadd(x,50); -----------------brighter image
S=x-c where c is constant value
>> S=imsubtract(x,50); -------------darker image
 We can add 2 image :
S=x+y (where x and y 2 image have same size)
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Image Enhancement Methods

 Spatial Domain Methods (Image Plane)

Techniques are based on direct manipulation of
pixels in an image
 Frequency Domain Methods
Techniques are based on modifying the Fourier
transform of the image.
 Combination Methods
There are some enhancement techniques based on
various combinations of methods from the first two
categories

 In this chapter, we are going to discuss spatial

domain techniques
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Spatial domain

 Spatial domain processes:

1. intensity transformation(Point operation)

- g depends only on the value of f at(x,y)
1. spatial filter (or mask ,kernel, template or
window)
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Intensity (Gray-level)transformations
functions
 Here, T is called intensity transformation function or (mapping,
gray level function)
g(x,y) = T[f(x,y)]

s r
s= T(r)

s,r : denote the intensity of g and f at any point (x,y) .

In addition, T can operate on a set of input images

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Intensity transformations functions

Intensity transformation functions fall into 2 approaches:

1) Basic intensity transformations

•Linear Functions:
- Negative Transformation
- Identity Transformation
•Logarithmic Functions:
- Log Transformation
- Inverse-log Transformation
•Power-Law Functions:
- nth power transformation
- nth root transformation

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Intensity transformations functions

2) piecewise Linear transformation functions.

a) Contrast stretching, thresholding
b) Gray-level slicing
c) Bit-plane slicing

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Basic intensity transformations
a) Linear ( negative and identity).
b) logarithmic ( Log and Inverse Log) .
c) Power( nth power and nth root).

‫ بالصورة بعد التعديل‬gray levels ‫التدرجات اللونية‬

256 ‫ سيكون هناك‬8 bit ‫ ان كان في البكسل‬,‫فمثال‬
)L=256( ‫تدرج‬

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‫ بالصورة قبل التعديل‬gray levels ‫التدرجات اللونية‬

Identity Function

- Output intensities are identical to input

intensities
- This function doesn’t have an effect on an
image, it was included in the graph only for
completeness
- Its expression:
s=r

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Image Negatives (Negative Transformation)

The negative of an image with gray level in the range

[0, L-1], where L = Largest value in an image, is
obtained by using the negative transformation’s
expression:
s=L–1–r
Which reverses the intensity levels of an input
image , in this manner produces the equivalent of a
photographic negative.

The negative transformation is suitable for enhancing

white or gray detail embedded in dark regions of an
image, especially when the black area are dominant
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 Image Negatives (Negative Transformation)

s=L–1–r
Output gray level

Input gray level

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Image Negatives (Negative Transformation)

Image (r( Image (s ( after applying T (negative)

Advantages of negative :
 Produces an equivalent of a photographic negative.
 Enhances white or gray detail embedded in dark regions.

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Image Negatives (Negative Transformation)

Note how much clearer the tissue is in the negative image

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Image Negatives (Negative Transformation)

Example 1:
the following matrix represents the pixels values of
an 8-bit image (r) , apply negative transform and
find the resulting image pixel values.
Image (r)

100 110 90 95
solution:
L= 28 = 256 98 140 145 135

89 90 88 85
s=L-1-r
102 105 99 115
s =255-r

Apply this transform to Image (s)

each pixel to find the negative 155 145 165 160

157 115 110 120

166 165 167 170

153 150 156 140

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Image Negatives (Negative Transformation)

Exercise:

the following matrix represents the pixels values of a

5-bit image (r) , apply negative transform and find Image (r)
21 26 29 30
the resulting image pixel values.
19 21 20 30
solution: 16 16 26 31
Image (s)
19 18 27 23

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 Image Negatives (Negative Transformation)

The negative of an image can be obtained also with IPT

function imcomplement:

g = imcomplement (f);

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Log Transformations function

The general form of the log transformation:

s = c log (1+r)
Where c is a constant, and r ≥ 0
 Log curve maps a narrow range of low gray-level values
in the input image into a wider range of the output
levels.
 Used to expand the values of dark pixels in an image
while compressing the higher-level values.
 It compresses the dynamic range of images with large
variations in pixel values.
 Log functions are particularly useful when the input grey
level values may have an extremely large range of
values

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 Log Transformations function

 Logarithmic transformations are implemented using the

expression:
g = c * log (1 + double (f))

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 Log Transformations function
 But this function changes the data class of the image to
double, so another sentence to return it back to uint8
should be done:

gs = im2uint8 (mat2gray(g));

 Use of mat2gray brings the values to the range [0 1] and

im2uint8 brings them to the range [0 255]

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 Log Transformations function
 Example:

>> g = log(1 + double(f));

>> gs = im2uint8(mat2gray(g));
>> imshow(f), figure, imshow (g), figure, imshow(gs);

f g gs
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Inverse Logarithm Transformation
 Do opposite to the log transformations
 Used to expand the values of high pixels in
an image while compressing the darker-level
values.

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 Logarithmic Transformations

InvLog Log

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Power-Law Transformations
 Power-law(Gamma) transformations
have the basic form of:
s = c.rᵞ
Where c and ᵞ are positive constants
 Map a narrow range of dark input
values into a wider range of output
values or vice versa

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Power-Law Transformations
 Different transformation curves are
obtained by varying ᵞ (gamma)

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Power-Law Transformations
 If gamma <1 :the mapping is weighted
toward brighter output values.
 If gamma =1 (default):the mapping is
linear.
 If gamma >1 :the mapping is weighted
toward darker output values.

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Power Law Example

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Power Law Example

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Power Law Example

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Power Law Example

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 Power Law Example
•The images to the right
show a magnetic resonance
(MR) image of a fractured
human spine
•Different curves highlight
different detail

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Power Law Example

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Function imadjust
 Function imadjust is the basic IPT tool for
intensity transformations of gray-scale
images. It has the syntax:

g = imadjust (f, [low_in high_in], [low_out high_out], gamma)

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Function imadjust

 As illustrated in figure 3.2 (above), this function maps the

intensity values in image f to new values in g, such that
values between low_in and high_in map to values
between low_out and high_out.
 Values below low_in and above high_in are clipped; that
is values below low_in map to low_out, and those above
high_in map to high_out.
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Function imadjust
 The input image can be of class uint8, uint16, or double,
and the output image has the same class as the input.

 All inputs to function imadjust, other than f, are specified

as values between 0 and 1, regardless of the class of f. If f
is of class uint8, imadjust multiplies the value supplied by
255 to determine the actual values to use; if f is of class
uint16, the values are multiplied by 65535.

 Using the empty matrix ([ ]) for [low_in high_in] of for

[low_out high_out] results in the default values [0 1].

 If high_out is less than low_out, the output intensity is

reversed.
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Function imadjust
 Parameter gamma specifies the shape of the curve that
maps the intensity values of f to create g. If gamma is
less than 1, the mapping is weighted toward higher
(brighter) output values, as fig 3.2 (a) shows. If gamma is
greater than 1, the mapping is weighted toward lower
(darker) output values. If it is omitted from the function
arguments, gamma defaults to 1 (linear mapping).

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Function imadjust
 Example1:

>> f = imread ('baby-BW.jpg');

>> g = imadjust (f, [0 1], [1 0]);
>> imshow(f), figure, imshow (g);
>> imshow(f), figure, imshow (g);
This Obtaining the negative image

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f g
Function imadjust
 Example2:

>> g = imadjust (f, [0.5 0.75], [0 1], .5);

>> imshow(f), figure, imshow (g);

f g

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Function imadjust
 Example3:

>> g = imadjust (f, [0.5 0.75], [0.6 1], 0.5);

>> imshow(f), figure, imshow (g);

f g

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Function imadjust
 Example4:

>> g = imadjust (f, [ ], [ ], 2);

>> imshow(f), figure, imshow (g);

f g

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Piecewise-Linear Transformation Functions
 Principle Advantage: Some important
transformations can be formulated only as a
piecewise function.
 Principle Disadvantage: Their specification
requires more user input that previous
transformations
 Types of Piecewise transformations are:
 Contrast Stretching
 Gray-level Slicing
 Bit-plane slicing
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Contrast Stretching
 One of the simplest piecewise linear
functions is a contrast-stretching
transformation, which is used to enhance
the low contrast images.
 Low contrast images may result from:
 Poor illumination
 Wrong setting of lens aperture during image
acquisition.

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 Contrast Stretching
If T(r) has the form as shown in the figure below,
the effect of applying the transformation to every
pixel of f to generate the corresponding pixels in g
would:
Produce higher contrast than the original
image, by:
 Darkening the levels below m in the original
image
 Brightening the levels above m in the
original image
So, Contrast Stretching: is a simple image
enhancement technique that improves the
contrast in an image by ‘stretching’ the range of
intensity values it contains to span a desired
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range of values.
 Contrast Stretching

(r2, s2)

(r1, s1)

Contrast stretching
Assume that
a: rmin,
b:rmax,

Contrast stretching: (r1,s1)=(rmin,0) , (r2,s2)=(rmax,L-1)

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 Contrast Stretching
 Remember that: Example: in the graph, suppose we have the
g(x,y) = T[f(x,y)] following intensities : a=90, b=180, m=100
Or
s= T(r) if r is above 180 ,it becomes 255 in s.
If r is below 90 , it becomes 0,
If r is between 90, 180 , T applies as follows:
Pixels above 180 become 255 when r < 100 , s closes ‫تقترب‬to zero (darker)
255 when r>100 , s closes to 255 (brighter)
brighter

If r >180; s =255
T= If r <180 and r<90; s=T(r)
If r <90; s =0
darker

This is called contrast stretching, which means that

0 255 the bright pixels in the image will become brighter
and the dark pixels will become darker, this means :
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higher contrast image.
Pixels less than 90 become 0
Contrast-Stretching Transformation
 The function takes the form of:

Where r represents the intensities of the input

image, s the corresponding intensity values in
the output image, and E controls the slope of
the function.

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Contrast Stretching

Image (s ( after applying T

Image (r( (contrast stretching)

Notice that the intensity transformation function T,

made the pixels with dark intensities darker and the
bright ones even more brighter,
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this is called 47

contrast stretching>
 Contrast-Stretching Transformation
 This equation is implemented in MATLAB for the
entire image as

Note the use of eps to prevent overflow if f has

any 0 values.

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Contrast-Stretching Transformation
Example1:
>>g = 1 ./ (1+ (100 ./(double(f) + eps)) .^ 20);
>> imshow(f), figure, imshow(g);

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Contrast-Stretching Transformation
Example2:
>> g = 1 ./ (1+ (50 ./(double(f) + eps)) .^ 20);
>> imshow(f), figure, imshow(g);

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Contrast-Stretching Transformation
Example3:
>> g = 1 ./ (1+ (150 ./(double(f) + eps)) .^ 20);
>> imshow(f), figure, imshow(g);

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Thresholding

Is a limited case of contrast stretching, it produces a two-

level (binary) image.

Some fairly simple, yet powerful, processing approaches

can be formulated with grey-level transformations. Because
enhancement at any point in an image depends only on the
gray level at that point, techniques in this category often
are referred to as point processing.
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Thresholding

Assume that (r2, s2)

a: rmin,
b:rmax,
k : intensity

Contrast stretching:
(r1,s1)=(rmin,0) , (r2,s2)=(rmax,L-1)
Thresholding: (r1, s1)

(r1,s1)=(k,0) , (r2,s2)=(k,L-1)

Thresholding:

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Thresholding
 Remember that:
Or
g(x,y) = T[f(x,y)]
Example: suppose m= 150 (called threshold),
s= T(r)
if r (or pixel intensity in image f ‫ ) الصورة االصلية‬is
above this threshold it becomes 1 in s (or pixel
intensity in image g ‫) الصورة بعد التعديل‬, otherwise it
Pixels above 150 become 1 becomes zero.
255

If f(x,y)>150; g(x,y)=1
T= If f(x,y)<150; g(x,y)=0

Or simply…

This is called
thresholding,
0 255
T= If r >150; s =1 and it produces
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54

Pixels less than 150 become 0

Thresholding

Image (s ( after applying T

Image (r ( (Thresholding)

Notice that the intensity transformation function T, convert the

pixels with dark intensities into black and the bright pixels into
white. Pixels above threshold is considered bright and below it is
considered dark, and this process is called thresholding.
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Contrast Stretching

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Application on Contrast stretching and thresholding

8-bit image with low contrast

After contrast stretching

(r1,s1)=(rmin,0) , (r2,s2)=(rmax,L-1)

Thresholding function
(r1,s1)=(m,0) , (r2,s2)=(m,L-1)
m : meanHanan
intensity
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level in the image 57
Contrast Stretching
 Figure 3.10(a) shows a typical transformation used for
contrast stretching. The locations of points (r1, s1) and (r2,
s2) control the shape of the transformation function.
 If r1 = s1 and r2 = s2, the transformation is a linear
function that produces no changes in gray levels.
 If r1 = r2, s1 = 0 and s2 = L-1, the transformation
becomes a thresholding function that creates a binary
image.
 Intermediate values of (r1, s1) and (r2, s2) produce
various degrees of spread in the gray levels of the output
image, thus affecting its contrast.
 In general, r1 ≤ r2 and s1 ≤ s2 is assumed, so the function
is always increasing.

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Contrast Stretching
 Figure 3.10(b) shows an 8-bit image with low contrast.

 Fig. 3.10(c) shows the result of contrast stretching,

obtained by setting (r1, s1) = (rmin, 0) and (r2, s2) =
(rmax,L-1) where rmin and rmax denote the minimum and
maximum gray levels in the image, respectively. Thus, the
transformation function stretched the levels linearly from
their original range to the full range [0, L-1].

 Finally, Fig. 3.10(d) shows the result of using the

thresholding function defined previously, with r1=r2=m,
the mean gray level in the image.

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piecewise Linear transformation functions.

Exercise:

the following matrix represents the pixels values of a 8-bit image

(r) , apply thresholding transform assuming that the threshold
m=95, find the resulting image pixel values.
Image (r)

solution: 110 120 90 130

Image (s) 91 94 98 200

90 91 99 100

82 96 85 90

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solution in matlab:

function a2(x,s)

y=x;
[m n]=size(x);
for i=1:m
for j=1:n
if x(i,j)>= s
y(i,j)=255;
else y(i,j)=0;
end
end
end

figure, imshow(x);
figure, imshow(y);

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