Image processing: basic methods

Image processing is actively used in photography, modeling, printing and publishing articles on the Internet. There are lots of options, ways, tools and methods for doing this process. Some of them will be discussed in this article.

Digital image processing: what is needed and where is applied

In the task of image processing is to give them a form in which they will most clearly and clearly reflect the reality or, conversely, distort it. For example, preparing photos from the wedding allows you to remove unnecessary elements, brighten the look of guests, the bride and groom. Especially important in the processing of the removal of the effect of "red eyes" and pulling the figure.

Creation of collages also does not do without post- and pre-processing. With their help you can draw pictures that could not really happen.

Correction of the graphic content receives the source from both digital cameras and from image processing devices, for example, scanners or web cameras.

There are several universal methods for preparing pictures for future projects. The main ones are the following:

• White balance;
• Exposure compensation;
• Processing of noise;
• Elimination of distortions;
• Detailing;
• Contrast processing;
• composition;
• retouch;
• the size;
• Sharpness at the output.

Perfect white balance - the guarantee of a quality picture

Color rendering is of great importance for the perception of a picture. Processing images for white balance gives them real color and reality.

Very often digital cameras default incorrectly or distortedly transfer color to a picture. You can adjust the white balance using the heat sliders. In some image processing programs, there is also a dedicated mode for this.

Exposure not only in the camera, but also in processing

The settings of various digital cameras allow you to set the ideal exposure at the shooting stages. However, this is not always possible. Therefore, you have to correct it with the help of subsequent image processing.

In particular, due to changes in contrast and tone, you can give the picture a natural color and a falling light. The necessary elements should be properly shaded, and those in the light be lighted naturally, without excess.

Processing noise - eliminating unnecessary

High light sensitivity can generate noise in the picture. They are expressed, as a rule, a shallow "rash" of artifacts. You can eliminate them at the stage of processing graphic images. Suppression of noise should be applied with the mind, since too little of them will make the picture unnatural.

Distortions

Wide-angle and telephoto lenses are capable of producing small changes in the geometry of the picture. Their correction can be claimed when aligning the layout or printing. For a panorama of the landscape, for example, distortion does not incur large losses.

Detailing will make it possible to see everything

This method is based on the sharpness adjustment. That is, image processing in such a way that the distinguishability of objects in the picture has improved. Sharpness, in turn, is determined by two factors - resolution and clarity. The first parameter describes the number of elements located at the minimum distance. The second expresses the degree of blurring of boundaries between objects. The more clearly they are, the more detailed the photo or picture looks.

Contrast - highlighting key features and details

Contrast expresses the difference between different colors of different objects in the photo. If it is tall, they are very well distinguishable to the eyes and look more impressive. On the other hand, too much contrast can make the image unnatural. Perfectly balanced, it gives the picture a vividness, while leaving vivacity.

Composition

The composition may include several image processing methods. One of them is cropping. It is characterized by the allocation of the most important areas from the figure and the accentuation of the horizon and focuses on them. This is true when photographing landscapes, when you need to remove an extra piece of sky or land.

Retouch - the general method

Retouch is a complex of measures to eliminate camera images and various artifacts from images. The main for this method is usually a selective correction. It is expressed in the manual removal of dust particles from the lens, zonal noise correction and similar methods.

The size

This method can give the image a larger or smaller value. When increasing, as a rule, interpolation is used, that is, the replacement of the nearest points is roughly similar. This can be useful when printing banners or posters.

Reducing without processing can give an unnatural moiré picture. Therefore, you need to apply a resize after image processing.

Image processing software

There is a mass of software image processing systems. All of them differ in a set of functional, support for additional features and price.

GIMP - free and powerful

One of the best graphic editors. You can download it free of charge from the developers site. Although this product is non-commercial, it has enormous potential. Processing vector graphics, working with layers, connecting a large number of plug-ins, using the RAW format.

In addition to all this, GIMP has a large Russian-speaking community where you can learn a lot of useful information and tricks. The program also has Russian language.

Adobe Photoshop - a real harvester in the graphics

The name of this product has become a household name for a long time. Saying the phrase "from the photo", a person makes it clear that he needs to process the image. And it does not matter whether it really is Adobe Photoshop or another program for processing graphics.

With the help of this powerful tool, many masters create so bright and natural masterpieces that they are very difficult to distinguish from a good photo.

However, studying Photoshop is not an easy task and it takes a lot of time. The program interface has a huge number of settings, functions, techniques and tools. It is very difficult to understand the move in it.

PhotoScape

Few people have heard about this product except professional designers and photographers. Perhaps its use makes it difficult to lack such a handy tool as layers that allow you to quickly copy and overlay images on each other.

Among the advantages of the program can be allocated free distribution, Russian localization, plug-ins and support for RAW.

Picasa

This product was developed by Google. The program is easy to learn, has a simple interface. Perfectly suitable for primary image processing at home. Professionals will see in this program a large number of missing tools.

The app is free, but Google has stopped supporting it since 2016. However, you can use the latest versions.

Paint.NET

A kind of reincarnation of the regular editor of the Windows operating system - Paint. Can work with layers, has a set of plug-ins. Many interesting tools and functions.

For introduction to the world of professional image processing is ideal.

CorelDRAW

Paid product. Due to the fact that its main focus is vector images, it is used almost everywhere. This and a variety of layouts for printing, modeling, building design and conventional drawings. Due to the large distribution has a significant number of ready-made plug-ins. The program is Russified.

Online Processing

Recently, the processing of images in online mode is gaining popularity. This method has many advantages:

• Processing speed. All calculations are performed on the server side, which is usually much more powerful than a home computer.
• Simplicity. It's enough just to upload an image or specify a link, and you can proceed. For this there is a large set of ready-made tools, few of which are inferior to many offline editors.
• Availability. Wherever a person is, no matter how weak a computer is used, online editors are always available on the Internet.
• Support for many formats and convert them on the fly.

Conclusion

Talking about the best methods used to process images is a bit rhetorical. After all, every professional working in this field determines his own set of tools. Depending on whether he works with photography, collages, models for prints or modeling, there are always those products that he considers most convenient and simple.

For beginners, editors can benefit from free products, the image processing technique in which it has the most primitive level. And this means that you can understand how they work, before moving to a professional.

Sharks of the same graphics prefer powerful pay solutions that require large system resources and investments. But, as a rule, a person who has a talent for this work very quickly pays all his expenses.

In general, digital image processing is a whole art in which it is extremely important to see the golden mean, be able to pay attention to small details and be creative in the implementation of a possible idea.