Python OpenCV: Crop image to contents, and make background transparent

Question

I have the following image:

I want to crop the image to the actual contents, and then make the background (the white space behind) transparent. I have seen the following question: How to crop image based on contents (Python & OpenCV)?, and after looking at the answer, and trying it, I got the following code:

img = cv.imread("tmp/"+img+".png")
mask = np.zeros(img.shape[:2],np.uint8)

bgdModel = np.zeros((1,65),np.float64)
fgdModel = np.zeros((1,65),np.float64)

rect = (55,55,110,110)
cv.grabCut(img,mask,rect,bgdModel,fgdModel,5,cv.GC_INIT_WITH_RECT)

mask2 = np.where((mask==2)|(mask==0),0,1).astype('uint8')
img = img*mask2[:,:,np.newaxis]

plt.imshow(img),plt.colorbar(),plt.show()

But when I try this code, I get the following result:

Which isn’t really the result I’m searching for, expected result:

Asked By: Aaron

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Source

Answer 1

Here is one way to do that in Python/OpenCV.

As I mentioned in my comment, your provided image has a white circle around the cow and then a transparent background. I have made the background fully white as my input.

Input:

import cv2
import numpy as np

# read image
img = cv2.imread('cow.png')

# convert to grayscale
gray = cv2.cvtColor(img,cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)

# invert gray image
gray = 255 - gray

# threshold
thresh = cv2.threshold(gray,0,255,cv2.THRESH_BINARY)[1]

# apply close and open morphology to fill tiny black and white holes and save as mask
kernel = np.ones((3,3), np.uint8)
mask = cv2.morphologyEx(thresh, cv2.MORPH_CLOSE, kernel)
mask = cv2.morphologyEx(mask, cv2.MORPH_OPEN, kernel)

# get contours (presumably just one around the nonzero pixels) 
contours = cv2.findContours(mask, cv2.RETR_EXTERNAL, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE)
contours = contours[0] if len(contours) == 2 else contours[1]
cntr = contours[0]
x,y,w,h = cv2.boundingRect(cntr)

# make background transparent by placing the mask into the alpha channel
new_img = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2BGRA)
new_img[:, :, 3] = mask

# then crop it to bounding rectangle
crop = new_img[y:y+h, x:x+w]

# save cropped image
cv2.imwrite('cow_thresh.png',thresh)
cv2.imwrite('cow_mask.png',mask)
cv2.imwrite('cow_transparent_cropped.png',crop)

# show the images
cv2.imshow("THRESH", thresh)
cv2.imshow("MASK", mask)
cv2.imshow("CROP", crop)
cv2.waitKey(0)
cv2.destroyAllWindows()

Thresholded image:

Mask:

Cropped result with transparent background:

Answered By: fmw42

Answer 2

Given that the background to be converted to transparent has its BGR channels white (like in your image), you can do:

import cv2
import numpy as np

img = cv2.imread("cat.png")
img[np.where(np.all(img == 255, -1))] = 0
img_transparent = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2BGRA)
img_transparent[np.where(np.all(img == 0, -1))] = 0

cv2.imshow("transparent.png", img_transparent)

Input image:

Output image:

We can tell the second image is transparent by clicking on it; the transparent background will show up a grey (in Firefox, at least).

Answered By: Ann Zen

Answer 3

What worked to me is:

original_image = cv2.imread(path)    
#Converting the bgr image to an image with the alpha channel
original_image = cv2.cvtColor(original_image, cv2.BGR2BGRA)
#Transforming every alpha pixel to a transparent pixel.
original_image[np.where(np.all(original_image == 255, -1))] = 0

And then writing the image.

Answered By: mrssolaris

Python OpenCV: Crop image to contents, and make background transparent

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