Registration of separations

A computer program for automatically registering digital images, the computer program residing on a computer-readable medium and comprising instructions for causing a computer to perform operations including:

• accessing a first digital image including first content for a feature in a first frame, the first frame representing the feature at a first point in time;
• accessing a second digital image including second content for the feature in the first frame;
• accessing a first transformation determined between at least an aspect of a third digital image and a corresponding aspect of a fourth digital image, the third and fourth digital images including content for the feature in a second frame, and the second frame representing the feature at a time that either precedes or succeeds the first point in time;
• determining automatically a second transformation based on the first transformation, the second transformation reducing a misregistration between at least an aspect of the first digital image and a corresponding aspect of the second digital image;
• and
• applying automatically the second transformation to the first digital image to reduce the misregistration between at least the aspect of the first digital image and the corresponding aspect of the second digital image.

An apparatus for automatically registering digital images, the apparatus comprising one or more processors programmed to perform at least the following operations:

• accessing a first digital image including first content for a feature in a first frame, the first frame representing the feature at a first point in time;
• accessing a second digital image including second content for the feature in the first frame;
• accessing a first transformation determined between at least an aspect of a third digital image and a corresponding aspect of a fourth digital image, the third and fourth digital images including content for the feature in a second frame, and the second frame representing the feature at a time that either precedes or succeeds the first point in time;
• determining automatically a second transformation based on the first transformation, the second transformation reducing a misregistration between at least an aspect of the first digital image and a corresponding aspect of the second digital image;
• and
• applying automatically the second transformation to the first digital image to reduce the misregistration between at least the aspect of the first digital image and the corresponding aspect of the second digital image.

A method of automatically registering digital images, the method comprising:

• accessing a first digital image including first content for a feature in a first frame;
• accessing a second digital image including second content for the feature in the first frame;
• determining a first candidate transformation to reduce a misregistration between the first digital image and the second digital image;
• accessing a second candidate transformation;
• determining a distance between the first candidate transformation and the second candidate transformation;
• comparing the distance to a threshold;
• discounting the first candidate transformation based on results of the comparison of the distance to the threshold;
• and
• determining whether to use the first candidate transformation as a final transformation based on results of the discounting of the first candidate transformation.

A computer program for automatically registering digital images, the computer program residing on a computer-readable medium and comprising instructions for causing a computer to perform operations including:

• accessing a first digital image including first content for a feature in a first frame;
• accessing a second digital image including second content for the feature in the first frame;
• determining a first candidate transformation to reduce a misregistration between the first digital image and the second digital image;
• accessing a second candidate transformation;
• determining a distance between the first candidate transformation and the second candidate transformation;
• comparing the distance to a threshold;
• discounting the first candidate transformation based on results of the comparison of the distance to the threshold;
• and
• determining whether to use the first candidate transformation as a final transformation based on results of the discounting of the first candidate transformation.

An apparatus for automatically registering of digital images, the apparatus comprising one or more processors programmed to perform at least the following operations:

• accessing a first digital image including first content for a feature in a first frame;
• accessing a second digital image including second content for the feature in the first frame;
• determining a first candidate transformation to reduce a misregistration between the first digital image and the second digital image;
• accessing a second candidate transformation;
• determining a distance between the first candidate transformation and the second candidate transformation;
• comparing the distance to a threshold;
• discounting the first candidate transformation based on results of the comparison of the distance to the threshold;
• and
• determining whether to use the first candidate transformation as a final transformation based on results of the discounting of the first candidate transformation.

A method of automatically registering digital images, the method comprising:

• accessing a composite color image;
• separating automatically from the composite color image a first component digital image including first content for a feature in a first frame;
• separating automatically from the composite color image a second component digital image including second content for the feature in the first frame;
• determining automatically a transformation for the first component digital image to reduce a misregistration between at least an aspect of the first and second digital component images;
• applying automatically the transformation to the first component digital image to reduce the misregistration and to produce a transformed first component digital image;
• and
• forming a new composite color image using the transformed first component digital image and the second component digital image.