1. A method for adapting color appearance of a display for low luminance conditions, comprising: operating an electronic display to display images on a display surface using color appearance parameter values; detecting ambient light conditions and displayed image brightness over time; determining initial and subsequent luminance conditions in an adaptive field based on the detected ambient light conditions and the detected display brightness; determining when luminance conditions change to or from low luminance conditions corresponding to human mesopic vision or lower; determining changes in color appearance to be applied to the displayed images based upon both the determined initial luminance conditions, the low luminance conditions, the current color appearance parameter values, and a color appearance model of human vision that encompasses at least photopic and mesopic viewing conditions; and applying the determined changes in the color appearance to image data using an image processor that alters the image data for the displayed images.