In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a system and method for local value adjustment are provided. In one embodiment, the method includes identifying a hue, saturation, and brightness value for each pixel of an image, determining whether the hue and saturation for each pixel fall within a first predetermined set of hue and saturation combinations, determining whether the brightness value for each pixel of the image falls within a predetermined set of brightness values, and selectively applying a gain to the saturation of each pixel based upon the determination of whether the hue and saturation value of the pixel falls within the first predetermined set of hue and saturation combinations and the determination of whether the brightness value of the pixel falls within the predetermined set of brightness values. The method further comprises decimating the image into multiple localized regions, determining a mean brightness value for each localized region, determining whether the hue and saturation for each pixel fall within a second predetermined set of hue and saturation combinations, and selectively increasing the perceived contrast of the image around the mean brightness value for each localized region by applying a transfer function to each pixel of the image based upon the determination of whether the hue and saturation of the pixel fall within the second predetermined set of hue and saturation combinations.