Systems and methods here may include utilizing a computer with a processor and a memory for receiving a pixelated image of an original size, converting the pixelated image to grayscale, calculating a magnitude of spatial gradients in the received pixelated grayscale image, downscaling the received pixelated grayscale image, computing a multiplicative gain correction for the downscaled received pixelated grayscale image, re-enlarging a gain multiplication for the original image, and applying the gain multiplication to the image to generate a processed image with higher contrast than the received pixelated image.