Acutance in the context of Visual acuity

⭐ Core Definition: Acutance

In photography, acutance describes a subjective perception of visual acuity that is related to the edge contrast of an image. Acutance is related to the magnitude of the gradient of brightness. Due to the nature of the human visual system, an image with higher acutance appears sharper even though an increase in acutance does not increase real resolution.

Historically, acutance was enhanced chemically during development of a negative (high acutance developers), or by optical means in printing (unsharp masking). In digital photography, onboard camera software and image postprocessing tools such as Photoshop or GIMP offer various sharpening facilities, the most widely used of which is known as "unsharp mask" because the algorithm is derived from the eponymous analog processing method.

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Acutance in the context of Defocus aberration

In optics, defocus is the aberration in which an image is simply out of focus. This aberration is familiar to anyone who has used a camera, videocamera, microscope, telescope, or binoculars. Optically, defocus refers to a translation of the focus along the optical axis away from the detection surface. In general, defocus reduces the sharpness and contrast of the image. What should be sharp, high-contrast edges in a scene become gradual transitions. Fine detail in the scene is blurred or even becomes invisible. Nearly all image-forming optical devices incorporate some form of focus adjustment to minimize defocus and maximize image quality.

View the full Wikipedia page for Defocus aberration

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Acutance in the context of Visual acuity

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⭐ Core Definition: Acutance

Acutance in the context of Defocus aberration