Colormanipulation

Colormanipulation refers to the practice of altering the color properties of digital images and video. It encompasses both corrective procedures intended to reproduce colors faithfully and creative procedures aimed at achieving a particular mood or look. Common operations include adjusting hue, saturation, luminance, and contrast; white balance, gamma correction, and tone mapping; color grading and color correction; color matching across devices; and color space conversions between RGB, HSV/HSL, LAB, and CMYK.

Techniques often rely on curves, levels, and histogram adjustments; selective color and masking; layer-based editing; and the use of lookup tables (LUTs). Other methods include color replacement, gradient maps, and gamut management to prevent clipping when converting between color spaces. Color management systems using ICC profiles are used to preserve intended appearance across devices and media.

Applications span photography, cinema and television, broadcasting, graphic design, and web media. In photography and film, color manipulation shapes mood, realism, and storytelling. In interfaces and branding, it helps maintain a consistent appearance across screens. In science and medicine, color normalization and calibration improve comparability of images for analysis.

Considerations include color fidelity and device dependencies, perceptual uniformity, and accessibility for people with color vision deficiencies. Ethical concerns arise when color manipulation misrepresents an image or deceives viewers, underscoring the need for transparency in professional contexts.