Chapter 4. Image Manipulation Techniques

This chapter explains the different image manipulation nodes and their utilization procedures that are available in Blender Compositor. These nodes play a major role in attaining the desired look. The following is a list of topics covered in this chapter:

• The Bright/Contrast node

• The Hue Saturation Value node

• The Color Correction node

• Significance of Gain, Gamma, and Lift

• Significance of Midtones, Highlights, and Shadows

• The RGB Curves node

• The Color Balance node

• The Mix node

• The Gamma node

• The Invert node

• The Hue Correct node

• Transformation nodes

Understanding image manipulation

Image manipulation is the main phase for establishing a predetermined look in compositing. This stage mostly involves grading, merging, transforming, and resizing of the footage to achieve the desired look of the film. Blender Compositor is equipped with various tool nodes to perform these tasks.

The Bright/Contrast node

The brightness of an image signifies the amount of light that is reflecting or radiating from it. Increasing or decreasing the brightness of a node proportionally changes the light reflection intensities of the input image as shown in following screenshot:

The contrast of an image signifies the luminance and/or color variation; in other words, the separation between the darkest and brightest areas of the image. Increasing the contrast emphasizes the distance between the dark and bright pixels in the image, thus making shadows darker and highlights brighter. This effect makes parts of the image pop up, making it a vibrant image. Decreasing the...

Summary

This chapter explained the multiple techniques that can be used as per your requirements to give a predetermined or desired look to an image.

The next chapter deals with some advanced techniques that are beyond image manipulation in order to make an image look more believable, including various camera effects.