Image Editing Process

Image editing is a process where manipulation of traditional chemical-based photographs, digital images and others are done to get the desired effect. Editing of the traditional image analogue is popularly known as retouching of the photo. Tools like the airbrush are used in the modification process or the usage of art medium in processing illustrations. There are three class-actions of the graphics software. They are

1) Vector-based graphics editor

2) Raster-based graphics editor

3) 3d modellers.

These are the essential tools which enable the user in transforming, enhancing and in the manipulation of their images to get the result they desire. Sophisticated software are also in existence that can create beautiful computer art from a blank screen.

Raster pictures are stored in the digital world in form of pixels, which is the basic element that forms a picture. The information pertaining to the brightness and colour of the image is contained in this pixel. Changes in the pixel leads to the changes in the picture in numerous ways. They can be formed as a group or can also be set in individually by algorithms in a complex software. Bitmap graphics editors are mostly discussed in this webpage which deal in the altercation of the raster graphics and images.

Some of the popular vector graphic software include vector, CorelDraw, adobe illustrator and para designs pro. These are essential in modification and creation of vector images that are saved as Bezier curves, lines and texts rather than storing inform of a pixel. This is due to the simple fact that rasterizing a vector image is much easier than vectorising a raster image. Many experts are researching an easier way to vectorise a raster picture in the branch of computer vision in computer science. Modification of vector image is simple as they contain the description of shapes in the image for making the rearrangement process simple. Scalability is also a defining feature. They can also be rasterized at a resolution of your choosing.

Many camera and computer photo editing programs have an inbuilt feature called as automatic photo enhancement. This is a basic feature that automatically corrects the brightness of the picture, colour hue, imbalances in the picture. Some of them also automatically remove the red eye, adjust the sharpness of the picture, crop and zoom the picture for better results. This feature is called as automatic because the only thing that user has to do is click a button and the software does everything else.

The RAW image files are usually very large in size. Digital data compression is the feature that is used by the software in reducing the size of the image file to save the storage space on a computer or a device via image editing software. If the picture is in JPEG format, then the compression has already been performed on the image and a user can also select the level of compress that can take place further.

There exists some compressing algorithms, PNG format, for example, that are truly lossless. Meaning, no information is lost when the original image is compressed. When JPEG is compared, the higher the compression, the more the information is lost. This results in loss of image clarity and details that cannot be restored to the image. But JPEG format reduces the details that cannot be seen by the naked eye, thus the image appears very similar to original even after compression.

Listed below are some of the most used features in the image editing applications. This list is by no means complete as there are countless features in various software. The features also vary by individual software and some of them are exclusive.

One of the basic features of every kind of image software is the selection of a part of the image. This helps in applying a specific change to the image without affecting other areas of the image. Most of the sophisticated software have multiple means of selecting a part of the image. They are

1) Marquee tool that selects rectangles on the picture. It also selects other polygonal regions according to the user needs.

2) Lasso tool, used for the rustication free selection of the image region that has to be enhanced.

3) Magic wand tool, this helps in selection of region based on luminescence or the closeness of the colour.

4) Pen tools that are based on a vector.

Some more advanced features such as detection of the edges, alpha compositing, masking and extraction based on colour and channel exist in advanced software. The borders of the area selected on the image are usually depicted by the effect of marching ants to help the user in distinguishing the selected area from another region.

A layer is another feature that is common to every image editing software. Layers are similar to transparent acetate sheets that have been stacked together to form an image. Each layer contains an individual element that when combined together, form an image. They can be altered or manipulated individually or can also be blended with other layers without affecting other layers. This is the primary workflow for every software in existence that provides flexibility to the user all the while having a set of standard editing principles that are very easy to use.

Resizing the image using a photo editing software is called as image scaling. They can be made larger or smaller depending on the user requirement. The DSLR camera usually produces photos that have very large resolution and size. The software preserves most of the image quality while reducing the size so that they can be easily shared on the internet and in instant messengers where the sharing file size is very limited. Resampling, which is a very complex mathematical process, is used in the calculation of the modified pixel size when compared to the original value. They can be made smaller or larger based on the user requirement. The images circulated on the internet are usually of 0.3 MP size, i.e. 640 x 480.

Another important feature for editing software is image cropping. This creates a new image from the existing file by selecting the desired rectangle part and discarding the unwanted part. The resolution of the crops area remains unchanged. For the best result, it is always good to start cropping an image with higher resolution. The primary factor for image cropping is improving the composition of an image.

The selection tool is used in outlining the figure in the image and it is selected. The background is then eliminated. The edges of the image part determine the complexity of the removal process. For reference, the removal process of the background hair of the subject is a very complex task, thus green screen technique is deployed to remove the objects in the background.

Editing software has an ability to create an Image histogram of the image that is currently being manipulated. The histogram is useful in mapping the pixel present in the image on the vertical axis and the brightness value that is depicted in the horizontal axis. The software then gains the ability to adjust the brightness of individual pixel simultaneously displaying the results as the changes are being made. Thus the brightness and contrast improvements are obtained.

Many complex algorithms are deployed in the editing software just to remove or add a noise in the image. For example, some scratches and dust are removed, sped artifacts are also eliminated. The resulting image can also be de-speckled. The noise reduction is simply a process of estimating an image state where the noise is absent and is not a replacement for features that make the image clearer. Using the noise reduction excessively results in loss of the details in the image. Thus, noise reduction is a choice that has to be used while calculating the removal of noise, loss of the clarity and artifacts of the image.

Noise prevails when an image is taken in low light conditions. The antiqued effect can be induced in a new picture with the addition of the uniform monochrome noise.

The clone tool is used in eliminating many unwanted elements in the picture. The overall composition of the picture can be improved by eliminating the unwanted elements that draw focus from the main subject.

Many image editing software have the ability to change the colour of a specific selected item in the image. The only condition is that the selected item should be within specific colour range.

Image software can rotate the picture in any orientation and to any degree possible. Horizontal flipping the images and vertically flopping the image is possible along with the creation of the mirror images. Usually, a small rotation is just required to level the horizontal and vertical orientation. Cropping is usually done to remove the gaps that are formed when the image is rotated even to a smaller degree.

Specific image editing software allows the user to change the shape of the image, I.e. To distort the entire image. This has become a kind of special effect for the pictures that are uploaded onto the social media, however, it is the method which will correct the perspective distortion that results from the images being clicked at oblique angles of the subjects that are rectangular. The editors have to be very careful while performing the task as the photograph is reprocessed using the interpolation on the pixels that are adjacent to each other. This results in the reduction of the overall image details. This is similar to the results that are obtained when using perspective control lens. The results are also similar to the in-camera correction that is totally lossless.

There exist numerous lens distortions like fisheye, barrel distortion, and pincushion. Photo manipulation packages contain various features that can correct these lens distortions. The corrections are very minor but they do help in improving the overall image quality.

Computer graphics are used in the process of improving the image quality of a particular image by manipulating it with a complex software application. The process can be quiet easy sometimes and other times can take up hours of your worktime. Take an example of manipulating the brightness or contrast of the image. Sophisticated software supports filters that can alter the image quality in numerous ways, giving countless results.

The software also has the ability to sharpen an image or make it look like a blurry mess. There are many ways of doing it like the unsharpe masking and deconvolution. Portraits are usually softened to make it look pleasing to the eyes and make the subject stand out. The skin and the background are particularly softened for this exact purpose.

This effect can be attained by using a camera that has a large aperture or with an editing application by selecting a specific area and then adding the blurring effect. A technique called as edge enhancement is very common to make the image look very sharp but experts debate that these results make the entire image look very unnatural.

Contrast is also involved in sharpening the image. This process involves in finding out the average colour that is around a pixel in a specific radius, then the pixel is contrasted to match the average colour. This makes the image look ultra clear and very detailed. Some example images can be seen on our website.

Almost every image software can merge various images into a single file. The placement and the orientation of every image has to be done in a proper manner.

While selecting a raster image whose shape is not in a rectangular orientation, the silhouetting feature has to be applied. Stilettoing is the process of separating the edge from the background. This is the digital equivalent of cutting an image out of a bigger picture. Clipping paths are used to add vector images and silhouetted images. They can also be added to page layout files that have the ability to retain vector data. Translucent edges are possible when selecting images with alpha composting. There are numerous ways to silhouette a picture to attain soft edges. This includes selecting the background and sampling colours that are similar, raster tracing for selecting the edges and raster selection from clipping path conversion. When the selection of the image is completed, we can pass it to another section of the same image or to an entirely another file. It can also be saved in an alpha channel.

Transparent layers are used in the creation of a composite image. The background picture is used as the bottom layer and pictures are added on top of it for the effects creation. Then the layer mask is used to hide all the layer to give an impression that all the layers are a part of the background image. The merge is very useful in preserving all the pixel and layer data and can also be used in the future for more manipulations.

Image slicing is a very modern tool that has been added to various software. The specific part of an image can be extracted with image slicing to be used in the graphical user interface or in a web page. They can also be saved or labelled individually from the entire image so that these elements can be individually used in the display interface. This is especially useful in animating images or in dynamic interexchange thought interactivity.

Every image editing software has various kinds of special effects depending upon its feature arsenal that help in the creation of various kinds of resulting images. These images may be at an angle or distorted in numerous ways. Thousands of effects are available to be added to the Image that includes texture effects, distort, blurring or additions geometric transforms. You can also combine multiple effects to get unique results.

This tool is used in recognizing and sampling an area on your picture. it then paints the pixels if it finds any marks. This tool acts like a painting brush. This enables the user in changing the size, cloning of one pixel to hundreds. The opacity can also be manipulated to create a clone effect. You can also choose between clone align or non-align for the sample area. This is called a clone stamp or rubber stamp tool in Adobe Photoshop.

Colour depth of the pictures can be changed using software. 2, 4, 16, 256, 65,536 and 16.7 million colours are some of the most commonly used depths. 16.7 million colours can be stored in the JPEG and PNG formats. Apart from that, grayscale picture that is of 8 bit or even lesser can be formed using down sampling and conversation on a full coloured picture. Grayscale conversion is very useful while decreasing the file size if the original print is monochromatic but a tint has to be induced for aging effect.

Modern software has gained the ability to parallel change the contrast all the while changing the brightness of the image. Photographs in dark lighting condition can be improved using this feature. Modern techniques allow for smart exposure correction where a pixel that is under a specific luminosity value is brightened. This results in brightening shadows that are underexposed while the rest of the image remains unchanged. The results can vary from software to software based on their luminosity threshold value.

Apart from correcting the contrast and brightness of images in a non-linear method, many modern software also have the ability to correct the gamma value of an image.

Gamma correction is essential in bringing the objects that are hidden in the shadow and which cannot be seen on an average computer monitor. Some software call this feature as curves that can be found in the colouring menu. No mention of gamma is found in most software or their documentation. When speaking on an advanced level, this curves tool does much more than an average gamma correction tool. Multiple inflection points are used in the creation of very complex curves but the same can be achieved when specialized gamma correction tool is absent.

There are numerous ways in which the colour of an image can be changed. They can be faded inwards or outwards, tones are modified using curves and other tools.

Colour Balance can also be corrected which is critical when the shot was taken indoor using sunlight filter or shot with the incorrect white balance set on the camera. Grayscale and other special effects like sepia tone can also be added. Advanced graphics editors also enable a complex mixture of the colour channels and other complicated colouring procedures.

The red-eye effect, which is caused when the eye is widely open, can also be removed with a click of a button.(the red eye is caused when the light originating from the camera flash passes through the eye and is reflected from the back of the eyeball.)

This is a feature that has been mentioned and developed by a photographer named as Elia locardi. The photographer describes the process of capturing numerous bracketed exposures of a cityscape or a landscape over a period of time to cover the natural as well as artificial lighting condition it is set in. Once the capturing process is completed, all the images are then blended into a single image of high dynamic Range using a very advanced software. Consolidate moment can be displayed on the subject using this process. What this means is that images of a single location during a span of time is fused into a single image to make it appear as if it was taken in a single moment.

Printing a physical copy of a digital image and the size it has to be printed need an accurate understanding of the factor called as pixels per inch commonly abbreviated as ppi. This is stored in the image file and is used for printing the image in a specific size. There is an image size editor in Adobe Photoshop called as image size dialog. This is used in manipulating the pixel dimensions as well as the size of the entire image on a printed paper. All these are very useful in printing a document or a photo that exactly meets your requirement in size as well as quality.

Pixel per inch of a picture, pixel per inch of a screen and dots per inch of a document are closed related theoretically but are very different in practical use. The image size dialog is also a kind of image calculator. Take for example an image of 1600 x 1200 resolution that has 200 ppi. It can be used to print an 8 x 6-inch photograph. The same image with 400 ppi can be used to print only an image of 4 x 3 inches. Change the ppi further to 800 psi and only a photograph of 2 x 1.5 inch can be printed.

These images have the same data and the resolution but since the pixels are moved closer together, the size changes. The smaller images also look the sharpest due to this. The quality of the printer is also a major deciding factor in obtaining optimal image prints.