Illumination
Color
Resolution-Detail
Each of the enhancement solutions that I present targets one of these three categories, which I discuss next:
Illumination enhancement is meant to adjust the image brightness and contrast. The simplest way to do this is by adjusting the brightness and contrast levels for the entire image (global enhancement). Nevertheless, more impressive results can be achieved if local adjustment is applied.
Color enhancement is meant to adjust the saturation of the colors (color brightness) or the color hue. Usually, the latter is more difficult to do since digital cameras are affected by the sensor characteristics as well as the illumination under which a digital photo was taken.
Resolution-Detail enhancement is meant to sharpen the details in an image. In many cases it may seem that resolution is created after enhancement is applied - of course, this is not true since we can only enhance what is already there. It is noted that some use the terms 'resolution' and 'size' of image interchangeably but this is a mistake since a 1000x1000 image may contain less detail than a 100x100 image.
Noise considerations:
Ideally, one would like to enhance all of the three aforementioned categories without increasing noise. Even better, noise reduction can be applied if necessary. Noise reduction can be a complicated process since the type of noise that affects the image can widely vary.
To summarize:
Easy to enhance:
Global brightness and contrast
Color saturation
Resolution-Detail
Tricky to enhance:
Local brightness and contrast
Hue
Noise (removal)
The photos that I show on this page are shots I took using a $140 point-and-shoot digital camera that I bought back in 2007. The original and the enhanced version of each photo is shown to illustrate how this can also work for your photos.
You can follow the instructions to enhance your photos to do the same using one of the Free Photo Editors and you can do it quickly since no software installation or registration is required.
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