1. A method comprising the steps of: providing an optoacoustic system comprising a plurality of adjustable amplifiers and a probe having a plurality of transducer elements, each of the plurality of adjustable amplifiers being associated with one or more of the plurality of transducer elements; acoustically coupling the plurality of transducer elements with a surface of a volume; changing the gain on the adjustable amplifiers as a function of the passage of time during a predetermined period of time after a pulse of light; recording a sinogram by sampling the adjustably amplified plurality of transducer elements for the predetermined period of time; processing the sinogram by substantially reversing the changing step mathematically, and storing the results in an expanded dynamic range sinogram, the expanded dynamic range sinogram providing sufficient numeric precision to permit the substantial reversal of the changing step without materially decreasing the dynamic range of the information in the sinogram; generating an optoacoustic image based upon the information contained in the expanded dynamic range sinogram.