1. A method to produce a qualitative image, comprising: depositing electromagnetic energy into a volume using one or more energy sources to deposit at least two wavelengths of electromagnetic energy into the volume so as to provide a source of molecular contrast for a parametric map; measuring acoustic return signals from energy deposited in the volume; computing a parametric map that estimates values of at least one parameter as spatially represented in the volume, wherein computing the parametric map comprises: computing the spatial representation of the volume based on the acoustic return signals for the first of the at least two electromagnetic energy wavelengths; computing the spatial representation of the volume based on the acoustic return signals for the second of the at least two electromagnetic wavelengths; balancing the relationship between the computed spatial representations for the at least two electromagnetic energy wavelengths; wherein the balancing is performed based on a mathematical characteristic applied to the region of interest of at least one of the computed spatial representations, wherein the mathematical characteristic of the balancing is the scalar projection of the estimated values in the region of interest for a first of the at least two wavelengths onto the estimated values in the region of interest for a second of the at least two wavelengths, and then the result of the mathematical characteristic is applied to normalize at least one of the computed spatial representations, and wherein the normalization is performed by multiplying at least one of the computed spatial representations in proportion to the result of the scalar projection, thereby producing balanced spatial representations of the volume for each of the at least two wavelengths; estimating the values of at least one parameter as spatially represented in the volume based on the balanced spatial representations of the volume for each of the at least two wavelengths; and outputting the estimated values of the at least one spatially represented parameter; producing a mapping configuration to adjust for effects resulting from at least some of the variability in the spatial profile of the deposited energy by: i) determining at least one reference level within at least one region of interest of the parametric map; and ii) specifying an upper color map limit and a lower color map limit, at least one of the upper color map limit or the lower color map limit being determined in relation to the at least one reference level; and, rendering the parametric map in the palette of a color map by mapping the estimated values of the parametric map onto the color map according to the upper and lower color map limits of the mapping configuration to produce a rendered parametric map.