Enhancing the tonal, spatial, and color characteristics of digital images using expansive and compressive tone scale functions

1. 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.

2. The method of claim 1 further including the step of:

f) amplifying the spatial detail of the enhanced luminance digital image channel produced in step e) in response to the tone scale function to generate a spatially enhanced luminance digital image channel.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein step c) includes using a spatial filter and amplifying the spatial detail of the enhanced luminance digital image channel produced in step e) in response to the tone scale function to generate a spatially enhanced luminance digital image channel.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the amplifying step includes calculating the slope of the tone scale function and using the calculated slope in generating the spatially enhanced luminance digital image channel.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the amplifying step includes calculating the slope of the tone scale function and using the calculated slope in generating the spatially enhanced luminance digital image channel.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein step e) further includes modifying the chrominance digital image channels in accordance with the tone scale function.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the modifying step includes calculating the slope of the tone scale function.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein step e) further includes modifying the chrominance digital image channels in accordance with the tone scale function.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the modifying step includes calculating the slope of the tone scale function.

10. The method of claim 1 further including the step of:

g) combining the enhanced luminance digital image channel and the chrominance digital image channels to generate an enhanced digital image when the tone scale function has been classified as compressive, and combining the spatially enhanced luminance digital image channel and the chrominance digital image channels to generate an enhanced digital image when the tone scale function has been classified as expansive.

11. The method of claim 10 using a sigmoid shaped rendering function independent of the source digital image and the enhanced digital image to generate a rendered digital image.

12. The method of claim 1 further including the step of using the pixels of the source digital image to generate the tone scale function.

13. The method of claim 1 further including the step of using the pixels of the source digital image to produce a histogram and using the histogram to generate the tone scale function.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the tone scale function maps a fixed percentile of the histogram to a predetermined output value and a different fixed percentile of the histogram to a predetermined output value.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the pixels of the source digital image have a logarithmic relationship to original scene intensities.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the tone scale function is manually controlled with at least one control parameter.

17. The method of claim 1 further including the steps of:

h) generating the tone scale function having a highlight tone scale segment and a shadow tone scale segment defined relative to a reference point on the tone scale function, wherein:

i) the highlight tone scale segment is defined by a different mathematical function than the shadow tone scale segment;

ii) the highlight tone scale segment is defined for points that are equal to or greater than the reference point; and

iii) the shadow tone scale segment is defined for points that are equal to or less than the reference point.

18. The method of claim 17 further including the steps of:

iv) classifying the highlight tone scale segment as either expansive or compressive;

v) classifying the shadow tone scale segment as either expansive or compressive;

vi) classifying the tone scale function as compressive when either the highlight or shadow tone scale segment has been classified as compressive and classifying the tone scale function as expansive when both the highlight and shadow tone scale segment have been classified as expansive.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the slopes of the highlight and shadow tone scale segments are each equal at the reference point.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein the slopes of the highlight and shadow tone scale segments are unequal at the reference point.

21. The method of claim 17 wherein the tone scale function has an inflection point at the reference point.

22. The method of claim 17 wherein the reference point is calculated using the pixels of the source digital image.

23. 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 three categories wherein the classification categories include expansive, compressive, and mixed expansive-compressive;

d) using the tone scale function, a first 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;

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; and

f) using the tone scale function, the first or another 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 mixed expansive-compressive and amplifying the spatial detail of the enhanced luminance digital image channel in response to the tone scale function to generate a spatially enhanced luminance digital image channel.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the amplifying step includes calculating the slope of the tone scale function and using the calculated slope in generating the spatially enhanced luminance digital image channel.

25. The method of claim 23 wherein step f) further includes modifying the chrominance digital image channels in accordance with the tone scale function.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein the modifying step includes calculating the slope of the tone scale function.

27. The method of claim 22 wherein step e) further includes modifying the chrominance digital image channels in accordance with the tone scale function.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the modifying step includes calculating the slope of the tone scale function.

29. The method of claim 23 further including the steps of;

i) combining the enhanced luminance digital image channel and the chrominance digital image channels to generate an enhanced digital image when the tone scale function has been classified as compressive;

ii) combining the enhanced luminance digital image channel and the chrominance digital image channels to generate an enhanced digital image when the tone scale function has been classified as expansive; and

iii) combining the spatially enhanced luminance digital image channel and the chrominance digital image channels to generate an enhanced digital image when the tone scale function has been classified as mixed expansive-compressive.

30. The method of claim 29 using a sigmoid shaped rendering function independent of the source digital image and the enhanced digital image to generate a rendered digital image.

31. The method of claim 23 further including the step of using the pixels of the source digital image to generate the tone scale function.

32. The method of claim 23 further including the step of using the pixels of the source digital image to produce a histogram and using the histogram to generate the tone scale function.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein the tone scale function maps a fixed percentile of the histogram to a predetermined output value and a different fixed percentile of the histogram to a predetermined output value.

34. The method of claim 23 wherein the pixels of the source digital image have a logarithmic relationship to original scene intensities.

35. The method of claim 23 wherein the tone scale function is manually controlled with at least one control parameter.

36. The method of claim 23 further including the steps of:

g) generating the tone scale function having a highlight tone scale segment and a shadow tone scale segment defined relative to a reference point on the tone scale function, wherein:

i) the highlight tone scale segment is defined by a different mathematical function than the shadow tone scale segment;

ii) the highlight tone scale segment is defined for points that are equal to or greater than the reference point; and

iii) the shadow tone scale segment is defined for points that are equal to or less than the reference point.

37. The method of claim 36 further including the steps of:

iv) classifying the highlight tone scale segment as either expansive or compressive;

v) classifying the shadow tone scale segment as either expansive or compressive;

vi) classifying the tone scale function as compressive when both the highlight and shadow tone scale segments have been classified as compressive, classifying the tone scale function as expansive when both the highlight and shadow tone scale segment have been classified as expansive, and classifying the tone scale function as mixed expansive-compressive when only one of the highlight or shadow tone scale segments have been classified as expansive.

38. The method of claim 36 wherein the slopes of the highlight and shadow tone scale segments are each equal at the reference point.

39. The method of claim 36 wherein the slopes of the highlight and shadow tone scale segments are unequal at the reference point.

40. The method of claim 36 wherein the tone scale function has an inflection point at the reference point.

41. The method of claim 36 wherein the reference point is calculated using the pixels of the source digital image.

42. The method of claim 36 further including the step of using the pixels of the source digital image to generate a histogram and using the histogram to generate the highlight tone scale segment.

43. The method of claim 36 wherein the highlight tone scale segment maps a fixed percentile of the histogram to a predetermined output value.

44. The method of claim 36 further including the step of using the pixels of the source digital image to generate a histogram and using the histogram to generate the shadow tone scale segment.

45. The method of claim 43 wherein the shadow tone scale segment maps a fixed percentile of the histogram to a predetermined output value.

46. A computer storage product having at least one computer storage medium having instructions stored therein causing one or more computers to perform the method of claim 1 .

47. A computer storage product having at least one computer storage medium having instructions stored therein causing one or more computers to perform the method of claim 23 .