ImageEffect [image,"effect"]
applies the specified image effect to image.
ImageEffect [image,{"effect",params}]
uses parameters params.
ImageEffect [video,…]
applies the image effect to frames of video.
ImageEffect
ImageEffect [image,"effect"]
applies the specified image effect to image.
ImageEffect [image,{"effect",params}]
uses parameters params.
ImageEffect [video,…]
applies the image effect to frames of video.
Details and Options
- ImageEffect can be used to simulate image effects such as artistic effects, motion blur, low-light noise, color blindness and more.
- Color transforms:
-
"ColorBoosting" constrast-boosting effect{"ColorTones",{col1,col2,…}} map chromacities from coli to increasing intensity values"Decolorization" contrast-preserving decolorization{"DetailEnhancing",σ,μ} detail enhancing using spatial spread σ and pixel value spread μ{"Posterization",n} posterization effect using n levels in each channel"Sepia" represent the image using sepia tones{"Solarization",t} solarization or Sabatier effect
- Stylization effects:
-
{"Charcoal",x} charcoal sketch effect{"Comics",{t1,t2}} comics effect using the black and white thresholds t1 and t2"EdgeStylization" a stylized version of the image{"Embossing",x,α} embossing by an amount x at an angle α{"Jitter",r} jitter pixels in the range-r neighborhood{"MotionBlur",d,α} motion blur of size d and angle α, given in radians{"OilPainting",x} artistic oil painting effect{"Stippling",n} stippling using n different density levels
- Color vision deficiencies:
-
"Deuteranopia" insensitivity to green, confusing green and red"Protanopia" insensitivity to red, confusing green and red"Tritanopia" insensitivity to blue, confusing blue and yellow
- Framing effects:
-
{"FadedFrame",depth,sides,method} add a faded frame{"TornFrame",depth,sides,freq} add a torn paper effect{"Frame",f,depth,sides} arbitrary specified frame shape f{"Vignette",r,color} decrease the brightness from the center
- By default, sides is assumed to be All . A list of Left , Right , Bottom , Top can be given to modify only the specified sides.
- The parameter depth corresponds to the frame depth starting from outside and can be given as the number of pixels or as Scaled [s], where s×GeometricMean [ImageDimensions [image]] pixels are affected.
- In {"FadedFrame",depth,sides,method}, method can be any of the following: "Cosine", "Exp", "Linear", "Log", "Rounded", "SCurve".
- Pseudo-random noise effects add noise to the image:
-
{"Noise",a} zero-mean uniform noise of amplitude a{"GaussianNoise",σ} zero-mean Gaussian noise with standard deviation σ{"PoissonNoise",a} an amount a of Poisson noise{"SaltPepperNoise",f} salt-and-pepper noise to a fraction f of the image
- Use {"SaltPepperNoise",{fs,fp}} to specify different salt and pepper fractions.
- In each case, "effect" can be used instead of {"effect",…}, and uses default values for parameters.
- When using {"PoissonNoise",a}, the noise scale σ is defined as 100×(1-a)/a and each pixel value p is replaced with PoissonDistribution [p×σ]/σ.
- Composition effect:
-
{"NestedComposition",n,scale,θ,pos,opos} recursively compose n scaled rotated copies of image
- ImageEffect [] can be used to retrieve a list of all available image effects.
- ImageEffect returns a grayscale image for single-channel images. All other images are converted to RGB.
- ImageEffect takes a RandomSeeding option used to specify the seed for some methods. By default, RandomSeeding->Automatic is used, which automatically reseeds every time the function is called.
Examples
open all close allBasic Examples (2)
Create a charcoal sketch effect:
Create a noisy image by adding Poisson noise:
Scope (27)
Basic Uses (2)
Create an image effect:
Apply an effect to frames of a video:
Color Transforms (7)
Boost the color appearance by extending the contrast in the image lightness:
Apply the chromaticity of a list of colors to increasing intensity values:
Convert the image to grayscale while preserving the local contrast:
Compare with the standard "Grayscale" conversion:
Enhance the level of detail in the image by specifying the spatial and color scale:
Create a posterization effect:
Posterize a grayscale image:
Create a sepia effect:
Apply a digital solarization effect to a color image:
Solarization effect with an explicit threshold:
Stylization Effects (8)
Charcoal sketch effect:
Transform the image as an old comic book picture:
Create an embossing effect:
Visualize the image with different densities of random dots:
Jitter effect:
Specify a small jitter radius:
Apply motion blur to an image, using the default angle of 45 degrees:
Render a color image in the style of an oil painting:
Stylize the image by smoothing it and highlighting its edges:
Vision Deficiencies (1)
Simulate different types of color blindness:
Framing Effects (4)
Frame the image by fading its edges:
Fade only the bottom and right side starting at 1/3 from the image border:
Use a torn paper effect to frame the image:
Use an arbitrary function to specify the frame:
Add a vignette to the image:
Noise Effects (4)
Add uniform noise to an image:
Add Gaussian noise to an image:
Add Poisson noise to an image:
Add salt-and-pepper noise to an image:
Composition Effects (1)
Nest a composition consisting of an image and scaled versions of it:
Compose 20 copies of the image, each scaled down by a factor of 0.9 and rotated by 5 degrees:
Applications (1)
Simulate dog vision as a red-green color blindness and blurring (due to reduced angular resolution):
Properties & Relations (1)
Create other effects by combining image processing functions:
Interactive Examples (2)
Interactively change the parameters of the embossing effect:
Interactive recursive repetitions of the image:
History
Introduced in 2008 (7.0) | Updated in 2010 (8.0) ▪ 2014 (10.0) ▪ 2016 (10.4) ▪ 2016 (11.0) ▪ 2017 (11.1) ▪ 2017 (11.2) ▪ 2021 (13.0)
Text
Wolfram Research (2008), ImageEffect, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageEffect.html (updated 2021).
CMS
Wolfram Language. 2008. "ImageEffect." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2021. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageEffect.html.
APA
Wolfram Language. (2008). ImageEffect. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageEffect.html
BibTeX
@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_imageeffect, author="Wolfram Research", title="{ImageEffect}", year="2021", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageEffect.html}", note=[Accessed: 16-November-2025]}
BibLaTeX
@online{reference.wolfram_2025_imageeffect, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={ImageEffect}, year={2021}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageEffect.html}, note=[Accessed: 16-November-2025]}