Digital Image Processing

Lecture 3: Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain

Dr. Arfan Jaffar

 Image Enhancement
Process an image to make the result more suitable than the
original image for a specific application
–Image enhancement is subjective (problem /application
oriented)

Image enhancement methods:

Spatial domain: Direct manipulation of pixel in an image (on
the image plane)
Frequency domain: Processing the image based on modifying the
Fourier transform of an image

Many techniques are based on various combinations of methods

from these two categories

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 Image Enhancement

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 Basic Concepts

Spatial domain enhancement methods can be generalized as

g(x,y)=T[f(x,y)]
f(x,y): input image
g(x,y): processed (output) image
T[*]: an operator on f (or a set of input images),
defined over neighborhood of (x,y)

Neighborhood about (x,y): a square or rectangular

sub-image area centered at (x,y)

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 Basic Concepts

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 Basic Concepts
g(x,y) = T [f(x,y)]
Pixel/point operation:
Neighborhood of size 1x1: g depends only on f at (x,y)
T: a gray-level/intensity transformation/mapping function
Let r = f(x,y) s = g(x,y)
r and s represent gray levels of f and g at (x,y)
Then s = T(r)
Local operations:
g depends on the predefined number of neighbors of f at (x,y)
Implemented by using mask processing or filtering
Masks (filters, windows, kernels, templates) :
a small (e.g. 3×3) 2-D array, in which the values of the
coefficients determine the nature of the process

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 Common Pixel Operations

 Image Negatives
 Log Transformations
 Power-Law
Transformations

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 Image Negatives
 Reverses the gray level order
 For L gray levels the transformation function is
s =T(r) = (L - 1) - r

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 Image Scaling

s =T(r) = a.r (a is a constant)

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 Log Transformations
Function of s = cLog(1+r)

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 Log Transformations

Properties of log transformations

–For lower amplitudes of input image the range of gray
levels is expanded
–For higher amplitudes of input image the range of gray
levels is compressed
Application:
– This transformation is suitable for the case when the
dynamic range of a processed image far exceeds the
capability of the display device (e.g. display of the
Fourier spectrum of an image)
– Also called “dynamic-range compression / expansion”

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 Log Transformations

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 Power-Law Transformation

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 Power-Law Transformation
For γ < 1: Expands values of dark pixels,
compress values of brighter pixels
For γ > 1: Compresses values of dark pixels,
expand values of brighter pixels
If γ=1 & c=1: Identity transformation (s = r)

A variety of devices (image capture, printing, display) respond

according to power law and need to be corrected

Gamma (γ) correction

The process used to correct the power-law response
phenomena

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 Power-Law Transformation

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 Gamma Correction

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 Power Law Example

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 Power Law Example (cont…)

γ = 0.6
1
0.9
0.8
Transformed Intensities

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Old Intensities

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 Power Law Example (cont…)
γ = 0.4
1
0.9
Transformed Intensities

0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Original Intensities

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 Power Law Example (cont…)
γ = 0.3
1
0.9
Transformed Intensities

0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Original Intensities

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 Power Law Example (cont…)

• The images to the

right show a s = r 0.6
magnetic resonance
(MR) image of a
s=
fractured human r

s = r 0.4
0 .3

spine
• Different curves
highlight different
detail

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 Power Law Example

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 Power Law Example (cont…)

γ = 5.0
1
0.9
Transformed Intensities

0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Original Intensities

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 Power Law Transformations (cont…)
• An aerial photo
of a runway is
shown
• This time s = r 3.0
power law
transforms are
used to darken s=

s = r 4.0
the image r 5 .0

• Different curves
highlight
different detail

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 Piecewise-Linear Transformation
Contrast Stretching
Goal:
– Increase the dynamic range of the gray levels for low
contrast images

Low-contrast images can result from

–poor illumination
–lack of dynamic range in the imaging sensor
–wrong setting of a lens aperture during image
acquisition

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 Contrast Stretching Example

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Piecewise-Linear Transformation: Contrast Stretching

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 Thresholding

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 Gray Level Slicing

• Highlighting a specific range of

Gray levels in an image

• First approach
– Display a high value for all the
gray levels in the range of
interest
– Low value for all other gray
levels
– This will produce a Binary
Image

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 Gray Level Slicing

• 2nd approach
– Brightens the desired range of
Gray Levels but preserves the
Gray Levels of rest of the pixels

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 Bit Plane Slicing

• Given an X-bit per pixel image,

slicing the image at different
planes (bit-planes)
• An application of this
technique is data compression
• In general, 8-bit per pixel
images are processed.

• Zero is the least significant bit

(LSB) and 7 is the most
significant bit (MSB):

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 Bit Plane Slicing
• Often by isolating particular bits of the
pixel values in an image we can highlight
interesting aspects of that image
– Higher-order bits usually contain most of the
significant visual information
– Lower-order bits contain
subtle details

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Example

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