Preferential tone scale for electronic displays

1. A method of displaying on a display a visual reproduction of an original scene with a preferential tone mapping; said display having a selected display white point and a selected display black point separated by more than 3.5 decades of luminance; the method comprising the steps of capturing original scene parameters, performing a transformation on said captured scene parameters, and displaying a visual reproduction of the scene on the display from the transformed captured scene parameters; wherein said transformation, taken in conjunction with untransformed characteristics of the capturing and displaying steps, results in a reproduced tone mapping having:

a. a dynamic range greater than 3.5 decades;

b. a first derivative value of minus log reproduced luminance relative to log original scene luminance between −1.1 and −1.51 inclusive for a log scene luminance of −0.6, measured relative to a 100% diffuse reflector in the original scene;

c. a first derivative value less than or equal to −1.9 and greater than −4.0 for a log scene luminance of −1.9;

d. a first derivative value between −1.5 and −3.0 inclusive for a log scene luminance of −2.0; and

e. a first derivative value at a log scene luminance of −2.5 is greater than the first derivative value at a log scene luminance of −2.0.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the reproduced tone mapping has a first derivative value greater than −4.0 for all log scene luminances.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the reproduced tone mapping has a first derivative value greater than −3 for log scene luminances less than −2.0 and log scene luminances greater than −1.5.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the display is an OLED, LCD, or plasma display.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the display is an OLED display.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the reproduced tone mapping has a first derivative value for a log scene luminance of zero greater than that for a log scene luminance of −0.6.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the reproduced tone mapping has a first derivative value greater than −0.5 for log scene luminances less than −2.8.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the first derivative of the reproduced tone mapping is continuous for log scene luminances greater than −3 and less than zero.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the second derivative of the reproduced tone mapping is continuous for log scene luminances greater than −3 and less than zero.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the first derivative value for a log scene luminance of −0.6 is between −1.21 and −1.27 inclusive.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the first derivative value for a log scene luminance of −2.0 is greater than the first derivative value for a log scene luminance of −1.9.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein said captured scene parameters comprise digital code values representing scene luminance, and wherein said transformation comprises modifying those code values.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the code values are modified in an image-processing path, and wherein said displaying step comprises applying the modified code values to the display to cause it to emit light corresponding to the modified code values.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the image processing path includes a lookup table.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the reproduced tone mapping is selected based on characteristics of the display.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the reproduced tone mapping is selected based on characteristics of a viewing environment.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the reproduced tone mapping is selected based on characteristics of the original scene.