1. A method for sharpening a captured image having a plurality of pixels using a processor to perform the following steps: identifying a first pixel having a first intensity value in the captured image, the first pixel including a plurality of first neighboring pixels that are positioned in a predetermined first pixel window; selecting a first selected high intensity value for the first pixel window; selecting a first selected low intensity value for the first pixel window; normalizing the first intensity value to establish a first normalized intensity value using the selected high intensity value and the selected low intensity value; selecting between one of a first contrast correction function providing a first level of sharpening and a second contrast correction function providing a second level of sharpening that is different from the first level of sharpening, the first contrast correction function having a first slope in a middle and the second contrast correction function having a second slope in a middle that is different than the first slope; determining a first adjusted normalized intensity value for the first normalized intensity value using the selected contrast correction function; and scaling the first adjusted normalized intensity value to get a first transformed intensity value.