hc99's picture
Add files using upload-large-folder tool
56d74b6 verified
.. _astropy-visualization-stretchnorm:
**********************************
Image stretching and normalization
**********************************
The `astropy.visualization` module provides a framework for
transforming values in images (and more generally any arrays),
typically for the purpose of visualization. Two main types of
transformations are provided:
* Normalization to the [0:1] range using lower and upper limits where
:math:`x` represents the values in the original image:
.. math::
y = \frac{x - v_{\rm min}}{v_{\rm max} - v_{\rm min}}
* *Stretching* of values in the [0:1] range to the [0:1] range using a
linear or non-linear function:
.. math::
z = f(y)
In addition, classes are provided in order to identify lower and upper
limits for a dataset based on specific algorithms (such as using
percentiles).
Identifying lower and upper limits, as well as re-normalizing, is
described in the `Intervals and Normalization`_ section, while
stretching is described in the `Stretching`_ section.
Intervals and Normalization
===========================
Several classes are provided for determining intervals and for
normalizing values in this interval to the [0:1] range. One of the
simplest examples is the
:class:`~astropy.visualization.MinMaxInterval` which determines the
limits of the values based on the minimum and maximum values in the
array. The class is instantiated with no arguments::
>>> from astropy.visualization import MinMaxInterval
>>> interval = MinMaxInterval()
and the limits can be determined by calling the
:meth:`~astropy.visualization.MinMaxInterval.get_limits` method, which
takes the array of values::
>>> interval.get_limits([1, 3, 4, 5, 6])
(1, 6)
The ``interval`` instance can also be called like a function to
actually normalize values to the range::
>>> interval([1, 3, 4, 5, 6]) # doctest: +FLOAT_CMP
array([0. , 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1. ])
Other interval classes include
:class:`~astropy.visualization.ManualInterval`,
:class:`~astropy.visualization.PercentileInterval`,
:class:`~astropy.visualization.AsymmetricPercentileInterval`, and
:class:`~astropy.visualization.ZScaleInterval`. For these, values in
the array can fall outside of the limits given by the interval. A
``clip`` argument is provided to control the behavior of the
normalization when values fall outside the limits::
>>> from astropy.visualization import PercentileInterval
>>> interval = PercentileInterval(50.)
>>> interval.get_limits([1, 3, 4, 5, 6])
(3.0, 5.0)
>>> interval([1, 3, 4, 5, 6]) # default is clip=True # doctest: +FLOAT_CMP
array([0. , 0. , 0.5, 1. , 1. ])
>>> interval([1, 3, 4, 5, 6], clip=False) # doctest: +FLOAT_CMP
array([-1. , 0. , 0.5, 1. , 1.5])
Stretching
==========
In addition to classes that can scale values to the [0:1] range, a
number of classes are provided to 'stretch' the values using different
functions. These map a [0:1] range onto a transformed [0:1] range. A
simple example is the :class:`~astropy.visualization.SqrtStretch`
class::
>>> from astropy.visualization import SqrtStretch
>>> stretch = SqrtStretch()
>>> stretch([0., 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.]) # doctest: +FLOAT_CMP
array([0. , 0.5 , 0.70710678, 0.8660254 , 1. ])
As for the intervals, values outside the [0:1] range can be treated
differently depending on the ``clip`` argument. By default, output
values are clipped to the [0:1] range::
>>> stretch([-1., 0., 0.5, 1., 1.5]) # doctest: +FLOAT_CMP
array([0. , 0. , 0.70710678, 1. , 1. ])
but this can be disabled::
>>> stretch([-1., 0., 0.5, 1., 1.5], clip=False) # doctest: +FLOAT_CMP
array([ nan, 0. , 0.70710678, 1. , 1.22474487])
.. note::
The stretch functions are similar but not always strictly
identical to those used in e.g. `DS9
<http://ds9.si.edu/site/Home.html>`_ (although they should have
the same behavior). The equations for the DS9 stretches can be
found `here <http://ds9.si.edu/doc/ref/how.html>`_ and can be
compared to the equations for our stretches provided in the
`astropy.visualization` API section. The main difference between
our stretches and DS9 is that we have adjusted them so that the
[0:1] range always maps exactly to the [0:1] range.
Combining transformations
=========================
Any intervals and stretches can be chained by using the ``+``
operator, which returns a new transformation. When combining intervals
and stretches, the stretch object must come before the interval
object. For example, to apply normalization based on a percentile
value, followed by a square root stretch, you can do::
>>> transform = SqrtStretch() + PercentileInterval(90.)
>>> transform([1, 3, 4, 5, 6]) # doctest: +FLOAT_CMP
array([0. , 0.60302269, 0.76870611, 0.90453403, 1. ])
As before, the combined transformation can also accept a ``clip``
argument (which is `True` by default).
Matplotlib normalization
========================
Matplotlib allows a custom normalization and stretch to be used when
displaying data by passing a :class:`matplotlib.colors.Normalize`
object, e.g. to :meth:`~matplotlib.axes.Axes.imshow`. The
`astropy.visualization` module provides an
:class:`~astropy.visualization.mpl_normalize.ImageNormalize` class
that wraps the interval (see `Intervals and Normalization`_) and
stretch (see `Stretching`_) objects into an object Matplotlib
understands.
The inputs to the
:class:`~astropy.visualization.mpl_normalize.ImageNormalize` class are
the data and the interval and stretch objects:
.. plot::
:include-source:
:align: center
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from astropy.visualization import (MinMaxInterval, SqrtStretch,
ImageNormalize)
# Generate a test image
image = np.arange(65536).reshape((256, 256))
# Create an ImageNormalize object
norm = ImageNormalize(image, interval=MinMaxInterval(),
stretch=SqrtStretch())
# or equivalently using positional arguments
# norm = ImageNormalize(image, MinMaxInterval(), SqrtStretch())
# Display the image
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
im = ax.imshow(image, origin='lower', norm=norm)
fig.colorbar(im)
As shown above, the colorbar ticks are automatically adjusted.
The input image to :class:`~astropy.visualization.mpl_normalize.ImageNormalize`
is typically the one to be displayed, so there is a convenience function
:func:`~astropy.visualization.mpl_normalize.imshow_norm` to ease this use case:
.. plot::
:include-source:
:align: center
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from astropy.visualization import imshow_norm, MinMaxInterval, SqrtStretch
# Generate a test image
image = np.arange(65536).reshape((256, 256))
# Display the exact same thing as the above plot
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
im, norm = imshow_norm(image, ax, origin='lower',
interval=MinMaxInterval(), stretch=SqrtStretch())
fig.colorbar(im)
While this is the simplest case, it is also possible for a completely different
image to be used to establish the normalization (e.g. if one wants to display
several images with exactly the same normalization and stretch).
The inputs to the
:class:`~astropy.visualization.mpl_normalize.ImageNormalize` class can
also be the vmin and vmax limits, which you can determine from the
`Intervals and Normalization`_ classes, and the stretch object:
.. plot::
:include-source:
:align: center
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from astropy.visualization import (MinMaxInterval, SqrtStretch,
ImageNormalize)
# Generate a test image
image = np.arange(65536).reshape((256, 256))
# Create interval object
interval = MinMaxInterval()
vmin, vmax = interval.get_limits(image)
# Create an ImageNormalize object using a SqrtStretch object
norm = ImageNormalize(vmin=vmin, vmax=vmax, stretch=SqrtStretch())
# Display the image
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
im = ax.imshow(image, origin='lower', norm=norm)
fig.colorbar(im)
Finally, we also provide a convenience
:func:`~astropy.visualization.mpl_normalize.simple_norm` function that
can be useful for quick interactive analysis (it is also used by the
``fits2bitmap`` command-line script). However, it is not recommended
to be used in scripted programs; it's better to use
:class:`~astropy.visualization.mpl_normalize.ImageNormalize` directly:
.. plot::
:include-source:
:align: center
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from astropy.visualization import simple_norm
# Generate a test image
image = np.arange(65536).reshape((256, 256))
# Create an ImageNormalize object
norm = simple_norm(image, 'sqrt')
# Display the image
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
im = ax.imshow(image, origin='lower', norm=norm)
fig.colorbar(im)
Combining stretches and Matplotlib normalization
================================================
Stretches can also be combined with other stretches, just like transformations.
The resulting :class:`~astropy.visualization.stretch.CompositeStretch` can be
used to normalize Matplotlib images like any other stretch. For example, a
composite stretch can stretch residual images with negative values:
.. plot::
:include-source:
:align: center
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from astropy.visualization.stretch import SinhStretch, LinearStretch
from astropy.visualization import ImageNormalize
# Transforms normalized values [0,1] to [-1,1] before stretch and then back
stretch = LinearStretch(slope=0.5, intercept=0.5) + SinhStretch() + \
LinearStretch(slope=2, intercept=-1)
# Image of random Gaussian noise
image = np.random.normal(size=(64, 64))
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
# ImageNormalize normalizes values to [0,1] before applying the stretch
norm = ImageNormalize(stretch=stretch)
im = ax.imshow(image, origin='lower', norm=norm, cmap='gray',
vmin=-5, vmax=5)
fig.colorbar(im)