Patent ID: 7058234

Claim:
A method of enhancing the tonal and spatial characteristics of a digital image, comprising the steps of: a) receiving a source digital image including a plurality of pixels wherein the source digital image is in a luminance-chrominance representation having a luminance digital image channel and at least two chrominance digital image channels; b) generating a tone scale function that can be used to enhance the tonal characteristics of the source digital image; c) classifying the tone scale function into one of two or more categories wherein the classification categories include expansive and compressive; d) using the tone scale function, a spatial filter, and the luminance digital image channel to generate an enhanced luminance digital image channel when the tone scale function has been classified as compressive; and e) using the tone scale function and the luminance digital image channel to generate an enhanced luminance digital image channel when the tone scale function has been classified as expansive.