Overview: Tone-mapping curves

Tone-mapping curves specify how source brightness values are transformed across the output range.

A curve exposes the relationship behind a tone-mapped picture: where lower values remain distinct, how brighter values compress and how the upper range is handled. The general-purpose and standards-based branches give those relationships names and visual examples. They are a useful basis for comparing highlight treatment before considering the implementation that evaluates the curve.

• What a tone-mapping curve controls
  A tone-mapping curve determines how input brightness levels are distributed across the available output range.

• General-purpose curves
  General-purpose tone-mapping curves offer different mathematical shapes for preserving contrast and compressing brightness.

• Standards-based curves
  Standards-based tone-mapping approaches relate brightness adaptation to defined signal conventions and processing methods.