Patent ID: 8509528

Claim:
A method for improving the appearance of image data provided at a low bit depth representation, the method comprising: identifying pixels in a saturation region wherein a color model value of each individual pixel in the saturation region is one of: above an upper saturation threshold and below a lower saturation threshold; adjusting the color model value of each of the individual pixels in the saturation region by a corresponding adjustment; wherein adjusting the color model values comprises determining the corresponding adjustment for each of the individual pixels in the saturation region by: identifying a two-dimensional characteristic of pixels within the image data, the two-dimensional characteristic related to the saturation region; determining a magnitude of the corresponding adjustment for each of the individual pixels in the saturation region based, at least in part, on the identified two-dimensional characteristic; and converting the low bit depth representation of the image data to a higher bit depth representation, thereby accommodating the adjusted color model values of the pixels in the saturation region using the higher dynamic range of the higher bit depth representation.