OpenCV 3.x with Python By Example - Second Edition

How do we handle color images?

Now that we know how to equalize the histogram of a grayscale image, you might be wondering how to handle color images. The thing about histogram equalization is that it's a nonlinear process. So, we cannot just separate out the three channels in an RGB image, equalize the histogram separately, and combine them later to form the output image. The concept of histogram equalization is only applicable to the intensity values in the image. So, we have to make sure not to modify the color information when we do this.

In order to handle the histogram equalization of color images, we need to convert it to a color space, where intensity is separated from the color information. YUV is a good example of such a color space, ...