Converting an OpenCV BGR 8-bit Image to CIE L*a*b*

Question

I am trying to convert a given Mat representing an RGB image with 8-bit depth to Lab using the function provided in the documentation:

Answer 1

In case anyone runs into the same issue:

Please note that in OpenCV (2.4.13), you can not convert CV_32FC3 BGR images into the Lab color space. That is to say:

//this->xImage is CV_8UC3
this->xImage.convertTo(FloatPrecisionImage, CV_32FC3);
Mat result;
cvtColor(FloatPrecisionImage, result, COLOR_BGR2Lab);
this->xImage = result;

will not work while

Mat result;
cvtColor(this->xImage, result, COLOR_BGR2Lab);
result.convertTo(this->xImage, CV_32FC3);

works like a charm. I did not track down the reason for said behavior; however it seems off to me, because this in effect puts limits on the image's quality.