VFX Atlas
M 004 / 18301 Edge & Featuresalgorithm output

Sobel Magnitude

edge & feature detection

Typeface · Fira Mono

Real-world algorithm demonstration, applied to a NASA portrait.
Real-world algorithm demonstration, applied to a NASA portrait.Image: NASA / Eileen Collins · scikit-image (public domain)View source ↗

Prompt

Apply Sobel Magnitude, turning the photograph into a grayscale gradient map with luminous contours in every orientation. Show strong boundaries in white, subtle texture edges in gray, and uniform surfaces in black. Retain slightly thick, softly graded outlines rather than binary strokes. Keep the original subject and composition.

Paste it into LetzAI with your own image to apply the effect ↗

Identify

Bright edges regardless of their orientation.

Principle

The magnitudes of the x and y gradients1 are geometrically combined2.

Try it out

Change the smoothing before derivation.

Classification

Calculated image processing result.

Further examples · 7 images

Avenida Paulista Sobel Magnitude
02 Avenida Paulista Sobel MagnitudeA cityscape of Avenida Paulista shows buildings and clouds rendered as white outlines on a black field. The image demonstrates Sobel Magnitude by highlighting high-contrast edges across all orientations simultaneously.Nathália Yukimi Uchiyama Tsuno · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Filtro bordes original sobel
03 Filtro bordes original sobelA side-by-side comparison of a source image and its Sobel magnitude transformation. The processed image reveals bright contours for all structural transitions, regardless of their orientation.Alaens · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Lizard Canny Edge Detector Intensity Gradient
04 Lizard Canny Edge Detector Intensity GradientA gradient intensity map of a lizard. It shows bright, thick edges that capture the complex texture and contours of the animal across all spatial directions.Babujayan · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Bo sobel
05 Bo sobelSource and processed image comparison. The right half shows a thin, bright outline of the shapes, illustrating the combination of horizontal and vertical gradients into a single magnitude.Jaromír Šrámek (Formol) · CC BY-SA 3.0 cz · Wikimedia Commons
Bikesgray sobel
06 Bikesgray sobelThe image shows bicycles against a brick wall processed with the Sobel operator. Every edge, including the circular bike wheels and horizontal brick lines, is highlighted as a bright value.Bikesgray.jpg: Davidwkennedy derivative work: Walczak.nich (talk) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
(edge detection) of Crimson Cabinet, Winter Palace
07 (edge detection) of Crimson Cabinet, Winter PalaceThe image shows an ornate interior where details are reduced to bright outlines against a dark background. This demonstrates a gradient magnitude calculation that highlights high-contrast boundaries across all orientations.Eduard Hau · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons