store mannequin with wig and sunglasses - ghostlyAura effect

...or at least a cool effect.

This is the second page of the Min-Max Ghostly Aura Article
Min-Max Filters - first page
Ghostly Aura Story Time

Raw Images

forest of balboa tree trunks - raw image

tropical cemetery with stone gravestone marker - raw image

store mannequin with wig and sunglasses - raw image

all images posted at 375x375 resolution

Assorted Filters

import scipy.ndimage
scipy.ndimage.filters.test_filter_in_question(img, x)

all images in greyscale
where applicable x=3, filterKernelSize=(3,3)

Gaussian Filter

store mannequin with wig and sunglasses - gaussian_filter

Timmy the Terrific Tortoise - gaussian_filter

scipy.ndimage.filters.gaussian_filter

Gaussian Laplace Filter

forest of balboa tree trunks - gaussian_laplace

tropical cemetery with stone gravestone marker - gaussian_laplace

store mannequin with wig and sunglasses - gaussian_laplace

TOP_SECRET_CLASSIFIED - gaussian_laplace

Timmy the Terrific Tortoise - gaussian_laplace

scipy.ndimage.filters.gaussian_laplace

Laplace Filter

tropical cemetery with stone gravestone marker - _laplace

store mannequin with wig and sunglasses - _laplace

scipy.ndimage.filters.laplace

Prewitt Filter

tropical cemetery with stone gravestone marker - _prewitt

store mannequin with wig and sunglasses - _prewitt

scipy.ndimage.filters.prewitt

Sobol Filter

tropical cemetery with stone gravestone marker - _sobel

store mannequin with wig and sunglasses - _sobel

scipy.ndimage.filters.sobel

Uniform Filter

store mannequin with wig and sunglasses - _uniform_filter

Timmy the Terrific Tortoise - _uniform_filter

scipy.ndimage.filters.uniform_filter

If it looks like I'm just going down a list, I was.
Just checking out what's available off the shelf.
Gaussian Laplance looked pretty promising.
But then, I found this next...

Gaussian Gradient Magnitued Filter

forest of balboa tree trunks - gaussian_gradient_magnitude

tropical cemetery with stone cross gravestone marker - gaussian_gradient_magnitude

store mannequin with wig and sunglasses - gaussian_gradient_magnitude

pink water pipes - gaussian_gradient_magnitude

TOP_SECRET_CLASSIFIED - gaussian_gradient_magnitude

Timmy the Terrific Tortoise - gaussian_gradient_magnitude

gaussian_gradient_magnitude

I hope it's obvious that the image effect displayed at the top of this page is taken almost directly from this simple little function: nice and easy and off the shelf.

forest of balboa tree trunks - gaussian_gradient_magnitude

The trick is to apply variations on a theme.

forest of balboa tree trunks - gaussian_gradient_magnitude

Some folks say you can take a thing to far.
I say, nonsense.

And that's about it.
Truthfully, from there, it's just a matter of pluggin and chuggin until one gets an effect they are happy with.