// shrinking an image size on any magnitude
        BufferedImage image = changeImageWidth(image, image.getWidth() / 2);
        ConvolveOp gaussianFilter = getGaussianBlurFilter(BLUR_SIZE, true);
        image = gaussianFilter.filter(image, null);
        gaussianFilter = getGaussianBlurFilter(BLUR_SIZE, false);
        image = gaussianFilter.filter(image, null);
        ColorTintFilter colorMixFilter = new ColorTintFilter(Color.WHITE, 0.4f);
        image = colorMixFilter.filter(image, null);
        //yet another image operations....
        // now bring it back!!!
        image = changeImageWidth(image, image.getWidth() * 2);



public static BufferedImage changeImageWidth(BufferedImage image, int width) {
        float ratio = (float) image.getWidth() / (float) image.getHeight();
        int height = (int) (width / ratio);

        BufferedImage temp = new BufferedImage(width, height,
                image.getType());
        Graphics2D g2 = temp.createGraphics();
        g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_INTERPOLATION,
                RenderingHints.VALUE_INTERPOLATION_BILINEAR);
        g2.drawImage(image, 0, 0, temp.getWidth(), temp.getHeight(), null);
        g2.dispose();

        return temp;
    }