Digital Image Processing CPE3643

Lecture 4:

Image Enhancement and Histogram

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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
Types of image enhancement operations
Point/pixel operations Output value at specific coordinates (x,y) is
dependent only on the input value at (x,y)
Local operations The output value at (x,y) is dependent on the
input values in the neighborhood of (x,y)
Global operations The output value at (x,y) is dependent on all
the values in the input image

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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

3x3 neighborhood about (x,y)

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Basic concepts
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

Input image (X-ray image) Output image (negative)

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 Image negatives
Application: To enhance the visibility for images with more
dark portion

Original digital mammogram Output image

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

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 Log transformations
Function of s = c Log(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:
– 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

Fourier spectrum with values of The result applying log transformation,

range 0 to 1.5 x 106 scaled linearly c=1

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Power-law Transformation
Basic form:

s = crg ,
where c & g
are positive

Plots of equation
s = crg,
For various values of g
(c = 1)

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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 a 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
▪ Example of gamma correction

▪ To linearize the CRT response a pre-distortion circuit is

needed s = cr1/g

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 Gamma correction

Linear Response of
wedge gray CRT to Linear
scale image wedge

Gamma Output of
corrected monitor
wedge

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Power-law Transformation: Example

MRI image of Result of applying Result of applying Result of applying

fractured human power-law power-law power-law
spine transformation transformation transformation
c = 1, g = 0.6 c = 1, g = 0.4 c = 1, g = 0.3

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 Power-law Transformation: Example

Original Result of applying

satellite power-law
image transformation
c = 1, g = 3.0

Result of Result of applying

applying power-law
power-law transformation
transformation
c = 1, g = 5.0
c = 1, g = 4.0

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Histograms
Histogram of an image with gray level (0 to L-1):
A discrete function h(rk) = nk , where rk is the kth gray level and nk is
the number of pixels in the image having gray level rk .

How a histogram is obtained?

– For B-bit image, initialize 2B counters with 0
– Loop over all pixels x,y
– When encountering gray level f(x,y)=i, increment counter # i

Normalized histogram:
A discrete function p(rk) = nk/n , where n is the total number of
pixels in the image. p(rk) estimates probability of occurrence of
gray-level rk
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 Histogram: application
▪ Distribution of gray-levels can be judged by measuring a histogram
▪ Histogram provides global descriptions of the image (no local
details)
▪ Fewer, larger bins can be used to trade off amplitude resolution
against sample size.

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Example Histogram

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 Example Histogram

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Histogram Examples

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 Contrast Stretching

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 through histogram

If rmax and rmin are the maximum and minimum gray level of the input
image and L is the total gray levels of output image
The transformation function for contrast stretching will be
 
s = T (r ) = (r − rmin )
L

 rmax − rmin 

rmin rmax

0 L-1
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 Piecewise-linear transformation: contrast stretching
Method

where a1, a2, and a3 control the result of contrast stretching

if a1 = a2 = a3 = 1 no change in gray levels
if a1 = a3 = 0 and r1 = r2, T(*) is a thresholding function,
the result is a binary image
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Contrast Stretching Example

Form of
Transformation Original low-
function contrast image

Result of Result of
contrast thresholding
stretching

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