Final answer:
To work with images programmatically, you should first save the image and then read it into your program using functions like Imread. If the image is in color, use functions from libraries such as OpenCV to convert it to grayscale for simplification.
Step-by-step explanation:
To handle an image using programming functions, such as those provided by libraries in languages like Python, you can follow these general steps. After finding your favorite image on the internet, you can save the image to your desktop by right-clicking on the full-size image and selecting "Save Image As...". If necessary, crop or resize the image using an online editor.
Once ready, you can use a function like Imread to read the image into your code. For instance, in Python, you would use the OpenCV library's cv2.imread() function. After reading the image, if it is in color, the cv2 library has a function called cv2.cvtColor() to convert the image to grayscale. This process involves changing the color image from BGR (Blue-Green-Red) to a single-channel grayscale image, which simplifies the image and reduces the amount of data to process.