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Grokking The Gimp
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6.4.4 Unsharp Mask Pitfalls

Applying Unsharp Mask can have its problems. For example, this method of sharpening an image can sometimes introduce undesirable color shifts.  Figure  6.35

  
Figure 6.35: Example of Unsharp Mask Provoking a Color Shift
Figure 6.35

illustrates just such a case. Figure  6.35(a) shows an image with a single edge and with a gray region to the left of the edge and a red region to the right. Figure  6.35(b) shows the result of applying the Unsharp Mask to this image. You can clearly see a cyan colored halo just to the left of the edge even though there is no apparent cyan in the original.

The explanation for this is as follows. Remember that each image is composed of three color channels. Thus, the Unsharp Mask is actually applied to each of the three channels individually and the results are then combined. Imagine, then, that the color on the left side of an edge consists of a low value of red and green but a high value of blue. Furthermore, suppose that the region on the right side of the edge has a high value of red and green but a low value of blue. This situation presents you with an edge that goes from dark to light in the Red and Green channels but from light to dark in the Blue. According to the preceding description, the Unsharp Mask makes a dip for the Red and Green channels on the left side of the edge but a peak for the Blue. Clearly, when adding the Red, Green, and Blue channels, the two dips plus the one peak do not create a color whose relative mix has been maintained. In plain language, this means the hue has been changed.

This is just what has happened in Figure  6.35. The color region to the left side of the edge is a medium gray. Thus, it consists of medium values of red, green, and blue. The right side of the edge is composed uniquely of a high value of red and low (zero) values of green and blue. Thus, the application of the Unsharp Mask creates peaks in the Green and Blue channels of the gray region but a dip in the Red. This explains where the cyan halo comes from, removing red from an image makes it look more cyan.

In most images, the creation of an off-color halo does not occur or is not evident. But when it does happen, don't worry; there is a technique to correct the problem. Figure  6.36

  
Figure 6.36: Circumventing the Unsharp Mask Color Shift Problem by Sharpening only the Value Channel
Figure 6.36

illustrates the procedure. Figure  6.36(a) is identical to Figure  6.35(a). The procedure first decomposes the image into its hue, saturation, and value components. This is done with the HSV option of the Decompose function (found in the Image:Image/Channels menu). The value component of the result is shown in Figure  6.36(b). The Unsharp Mask is then applied uniquely to this value component, the result being shown in Figure  6.36(c). Finally, the hue, saturation, and sharpened value components are recomposed using the HSV option of the Compose function (also found in the Image:Image/Channels menu). Figure  6.36(d) shows the result of the processing sequence. As you can see, the edge has been sharpened without creating a shift in hue at the edge.

Because the value component of the image only contains light and dark information about the image, the sharpening is performed just where it should be and no color shift occurs. Why isn't an HSV decomposition built into the Unsharp Mask? Apparently, a few mysteries of the unsharp persist...

The other important problem that the Unsharp Mask can create is the amplification  of noise. Noise is sharpened just as are the other elements of the image, and if the sharpened noise becomes too apparent, it can become a significant detraction. An approach that can be used to avoid the problem is to set a non-zero value of Threshold in the Unsharp Mask dialog. Setting the threshold diminishes the effect of noise by applying the mask only to edges that have jumps greater than the Threshold value.




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