// NOTE you SHOULD cvReleaseImage() for the return value when end of the code.
- (IplImage *)CreateIplImageFromUIImage:(UIImage *)image {
  // Getting CGImage from UIImage
  CGImageRef imageRef = image.CGImage;

  CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
  // Creating temporal IplImage for drawing
  IplImage *iplimage = cvCreateImage(
    cvSize(image.size.width,image.size.height), IPL_DEPTH_8U, 4
  );
  // Creating CGContext for temporal IplImage
  CGContextRef contextRef = CGBitmapContextCreate(
    iplimage->imageData, iplimage->width, iplimage->height,
    iplimage->depth, iplimage->widthStep,
    colorSpace, kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast|kCGBitmapByteOrderDefault
  );
  // Drawing CGImage to CGContext
  CGContextDrawImage(
    contextRef,
    CGRectMake(0, 0, image.size.width, image.size.height),
    imageRef
  );
  CGContextRelease(contextRef);
  CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);

  // Creating result IplImage
  IplImage *ret = cvCreateImage(cvGetSize(iplimage), IPL_DEPTH_8U, 3);
  cvCvtColor(iplimage, ret, CV_RGBA2BGR);
  cvReleaseImage(&iplimage);

  return ret;
}

http://niw.at/articles/2009/03/14/using-opencv-on-iphone/en

IplImage from UIImage

Objective C