Awesome Images

Captain Disillusion’s educational series on video tech delves into the mathematics and digital processes involved in blurring out an image. He then explores whether it is possible to un-blur an image that appears to have lost its detail. It depends on whether you know the kernel used to create the blur, and if the image has been manipulated or compressed.

Printed full-color images are often made from dot patterns called halftones. From a distance, they produce the illusion of smooth shades and millions of colors, but made from just four colors: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Posy’s video offers a brief overview of the technique and a series of close-up dot patterns zoomed out to see their full images.

Digital images typically have three color channels – red, green, and blue, and sometimes a fourth, Alpha channel, which defines transparency. Captain Disillusion the ways they can be created, and how the improper use of the Alpha channel can mean the difference between a seamless composite image and disaster.