A method comprising: receiving a high dynamic range radiometric thermal image comprising a plurality of pixels, wherein each pixel is associated with a HDR thermal image value; determining a transfer function, wherein the transfer function associates at least a portion of the HDR thermal image values with low dynamic range thermal image values; converting, with the transfer function, the HDR radiometric thermal image to a low dynamic range radiometric thermal image, wherein the LDR radiometric thermal image is an image with a dynamic range lower than the HDR radiometric thermal image; determining an inverse transfer function associated with the transfer function; and transmitting (350, 370) the inverse transfer function and the LDR radiometric thermal image to a receiving device, wherein determining the transfer function comprises: determining a count of unique HDR thermal image values within the HDR radiometric thermal image; and associating each of the unique HDR thermal image values to an available LDR thermal image value, wherein associating each of the unique HDR thermal image values comprises associating each of the unique HDR thermal image values to available LDR thermal image values according to an HDR to LDR compression, wherein HDR thermal image values within a center region of the HDR radiometric thermal image have a lower HDR to LDR compression, or further comprising determining at least one hotspot within the HDR radiometric thermal image wherein HDR thermal image values within the at least one hotspot have lower HDR to LDR compression, or wherein HDR thermal image values radiometrically associated with human irradiance levels have a lower HDR to LDR compression. receiving a high dynamic range radiometric thermal image comprising a plurality of pixels, wherein each pixel is associated with a HDR thermal image value; determining a transfer function, wherein the transfer function associates at least a portion of the HDR thermal image values with low dynamic range thermal image values; converting, with the transfer function, the HDR radiometric thermal image to a low dynamic range radiometric thermal image, wherein the LDR radiometric thermal image is an image with a dynamic range lower than the HDR radiometric thermal image; determining an inverse transfer function associated with the transfer function; and transmitting (350, 370) the inverse transfer function and the LDR radiometric thermal image to a receiving device, wherein determining the transfer function comprises: determining a count of unique HDR thermal image values within the HDR radiometric thermal image; and associating each of the unique HDR thermal image values to an available LDR thermal image value, wherein associating each of the unique HDR thermal image values comprises associating each of the unique HDR thermal image values to available LDR thermal image values according to an HDR to LDR compression, wherein HDR thermal image values within a center region of the HDR radiometric thermal image have a lower HDR to LDR compression, or further comprising determining at least one hotspot within the HDR radiometric thermal image wherein HDR thermal image values within the at least one hotspot have lower HDR to LDR compression, or wherein HDR thermal image values radiometrically associated with human irradiance levels have a lower HDR to LDR compression. determining a count of unique HDR thermal image values within the HDR radiometric thermal image; and associating each of the unique HDR thermal image values to an available LDR thermal image value, wherein associating each of the unique HDR thermal image values comprises associating each of the unique HDR thermal image values to available LDR thermal image values according to an HDR to LDR compression, wherein HDR thermal image values within a center region of the HDR radiometric thermal image have a lower HDR to LDR compression, or further comprising determining at least one hotspot within the HDR radiometric thermal image wherein HDR thermal image values within the at least one hotspot have lower HDR to LDR compression, or wherein HDR thermal image values radiometrically associated with human irradiance levels have a lower HDR to LDR compression.