Contrast Enhancement

Contrast enhancement is a technique to make objects in an image easier to distinguish.

Original image

Contrast Stretching

Below is an example of contrast stretching. The histogram's shape is the same, but stretched, hence it is also called histogram stretching.

Histogram Equalization

Below is an example of histogram equalization. Each intensity level is mapped (red) to make the histogram equalized. Note that the cumulative histogram (blue) is approaching a straight line.


Image used: "Unequalized Hawkes Bay NZ" by Konstable (CC BY 2.0); edited from Phillip Capper (CC BY 2.0)