A method for tone mapping a high dynamic range image of a large terrestrial area into a lower dynamic range image uses a globally aware, locally adaptive approach whereby local tonal balancing parameter values are derived from known tone mapping parameters for a local 3×3 matrix of image tiles and used in turn to derive a local sigmoid transfer function for pixels in the tile in the middle of the matrix. A global sigmoid transfer function is derived based on values of the tone mapping parameters applicable to the entire image. A lower dynamic range image pixel will have a local tone mapped value and a globally tone mapped value, which are combined by giving each a weighted value to provide a final low dynamitic range pixel value.