Thank you for reading my question. 

I am new to python and became interested in scipy. I am trying to figure out how I can make the image of the Racoon (in scipy misc) to a binary one (black, white). This is not taught in the scipy-lecture tutorial. 

This is so far my code:

```
%matplotlib inline
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np 
from scipy import misc  #here is how you get the racoon image

face = misc.face()
image = misc.face(gray=True)
plt.imshow(image, cmap=plt.cm.gray)
print image.shape 

def binary_racoon(image, lowerthreshold, upperthreshold):
    img = image.copy()
    shape = np.shape(img)

    for i in range(shape[1]):
        for j in range(shape[0]): 
             if img[i,j] < lowerthreshold and img[i,j] > upperthreshold:
                 #then assign black to the pixel
             else:
                 #then assign white to the pixel

    return img

    convertedpicture = binary_racoon(image, 80, 100) 
    plt.imshow(convertedpicture, cmap=plt.cm.gist_gray)

```

I have seen other people using OpenCV to make a picture binary, but I am wondering how I can do it in this way by looping over the pixels? I have no idea what value to give to the upper and lower threshold, so I made a guess of 80 and 100. Is there also a way to determine this?