One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for correcting color values. The technique includes downsampling first color space values to generate downsampled color space values and upsampling the downsampled color space values to generate second color space values. The technique further includes modifying at least one component value included in the downsampled color space values based on a first component value included in the first color space values, a second component value included in the second color space values, and an approximation of a nonlinear transfer function.