1. A method comprising the steps of: acquiring a low-contrast, wide-latitude x-ray film image characterized by a contrast gradient G of 2 or less using a medical imaging modality; converting the film image to a low-contrast, wide-latitude digital image; processing the low-contrast, wide-latitude digital image by computer to automatically identify suspected abnormalities therein; using information regarding suspected abnormalities identified in the processing step to automatically find a relatively narrow exposure range that includes an exposure range related to at least one of the abnormalities; converting the low-contrast, wide-latitude digital image to a high-contrast, narrow-latitude version display image conforming to said relatively narrow exposure range; and displaying the display image on a display device.