A system and method for expansion and reduction of images uses a look-up table to define an arbitrary mapping of data (e.g., pixel values) representing an image to respective energy values. Each pixel value may represent an absolute color or intensity value, a difference in color or intensity values, or an average, derivative, minimum, or maximum of two or more pixel values. The energy values may then be used to determine one or more low-cost seams of the image to be removed for an image reduction operation or replicated for an image expansion operation, where the cost of each seam is dependent on the energy values of the pixels of the seam. The look-up table may be used to apply a threshold and/or cap on the energy values mapped to pixel values. The look-up table may also provide a mechanism for reconfiguring mappings, thresholds, and/or caps.