Consider the following sourcecode for reading an image from the local hard drive

Example

#include "cv.h" //main OpenCV functions
#include "highgui.h" //OpenCV GUI functions¯include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
    /* declare a new IplImage pointer, the basic
    image data structure in OpenCV */
    IplImage* newImg;
    /* load an image named "desert.jpg", 1 means
    this is a color image */
    newImg = cvLoadImage("Desert.jpg",1);
    //create a new window
    cvNamedWindow("Window", 1);
    //display the image in the window
    cvShowImage("Window", newImg);
    //wait for key to close the window
    cvWaitKey(0);
    cvDestroyWindow( "Window" ); //destroy the window
    cvReleaseImage( &newImg ); //release the memory for the image
    return 0;
}