Question

I am changing color values of each pixel in an image based on a calculation. The problem is that this takes over 5 seconds on my machine with a 1000×1333 image and I’m looking for a way to optimize it to be much faster.

I think ColorMatrix may be an option, but I’m having a difficult time figure out how I would get a set of pixel RGB values, use that to calculate and then set the new pixel value. I can see how this can be done if I was just modifying (multiplying, subtracting, etc.) the original value with ColorMatrix, but now how I can use the pixels returned value to use it to calculate and new value.

For example:

Sub DarkenPicture()
    Dim clrTestFolderPath = "C:\Users\Me\Desktop\ColorTest\"
    Dim originalPicture = "original.jpg"
    Dim Luminance As Single
    Dim bitmapOriginal As Bitmap = Image.FromFile(clrTestFolderPath + originalPicture)
    Dim Clr As Color
    Dim newR As Byte
    Dim newG As Byte
    Dim newB As Byte
    For x = 0 To bitmapOriginal.Width - 1
        For y = 0 To bitmapOriginal.Height - 1
            Clr = bitmapOriginal.GetPixel(x, y)
            Luminance = ((0.21 * (Clr.R) + (0.72 * (Clr.G)) + (0.07 * (Clr.B))/ 255
            newR = Clr.R * Luminance
            newG = Clr.G * Luminance
            newB = Clr.B * Luminance
            bitmapOriginal.SetPixel(x, y, Color.FromArgb(newR, newG, newB))
        Next
    Next
    bitmapOriginal.Save(clrTestFolderPath + "colorized.jpg", ImageFormat.Jpeg)
End Sub

The Luminance value is the calculated one. I know I can set ColorMatrix‘s M00, M11, M22 to 0, 0, 0 respectively and then put a new value in M40, M41, M42, but that new value is calculated based of a value multiplication and addition of that pixel’s components (((0.21 * (Clr.R) + (0.72 * (Clr.G)) + (0.07 * (Clr.B)) and the result of that – Luminance – is multiplied by the color component).

Is this even possible with ColorMatrix?

Answer 1

No. Making any one of the color components being multiplied with itself or any other component is not possible with a ColorMatrix. You can ony multiply the components with constants and then add the parts together.

But what you can do is to write this into C# and use .LockBits instead of GetPixel/SetPixel. That would be even faster that what you could possibly achieve with a ColorMatrix.

UPDATE: some sample code:

    private static void myVerySpecialSepia(
        IntPtr source,
        IntPtr destination,
        int height,
        int width,
        int sourceStride,
        int destinationStride,
        int sourceBytesPerPixel,
        int destinationBytesPerPixel )
    {
        unsafe
        {
            for ( int y = 0 ; y < height ; y++ )
            {
                byte* pOrig = (byte*)source.ToPointer() + sourceStride * y;
                byte* pDest = (byte*)destination.ToPointer() + destinationStride * y;
                for ( int x = width ; x > 0 ; x-- )
                {
                    float b = pOrig[0];
                    float g = pOrig[1];
                    float r = pOrig[2];
                    float b2 = b * b;
                    float g2 = g * g;
                    float r2 = r * r;
                    pDest[0] = (byte)(
                        b * 0.400367618f + b2 * 0.00011502471f +
                        g * (-0.0337239578f) + g2 * 0.00056673412f +
                        r * 0.221445322f + r2 * 0.0008506606f +
                        6.2766808485f);
                    pDest[1] = (byte)(
                        b * 0.493460029f + b2 * (-0.00023297003f) +
                        g * (-0.008577178f) + g2 * 0.00031247039f +
                        r * 0.5043012 + r2 * (-0.00006892065f) +
                        0.2746957206f);
                    pDest[2] = (byte)(
                        b * 0.617727f + b2 * (-0.00070876251f) +
                        g * 0.00271902746f + g2 * 0.00007401942f +
                        r * 0.6954346f + r2 * (-0.00065937551f) +
                        0.116103285f);
                    pOrig += sourceBytesPerPixel;
                    pDest += destinationBytesPerPixel;
                }
            }
        }
    }