So here are the details (I am using C# BTW):

I receive a 32bpp image (JPEG compressed) from a server. At some point, I would like to use the Palette property of a bitmap to color over-saturated pixels (brightness > 240) red. To do so, I need to get the image into an indexed format.

I have tried converting the image to a GIF, but I get quality loss. I have tried creating a new bitmap in an index format by these methods:

// causes a "Parameter not valid" error
Bitmap indexed = new Bitmap(orig.Width, orig.Height, PixelFormat.Indexed)

// no error, but the resulting image is black due to information loss I assume
Bitmap indexed = new Bitmap(orig.Width, orig.Height, PixelFormat.Format8bppIndexed)

I am at a loss now. The data in this image is changed constantly by the user, so I don't want to manually set pixels that have a brightness > 240 if I can avoid it. If I can set the palette once when the image is created, my work is done. If I am going about this the wrong way to begin with please let me know.

EDIT: Thanks guys, here is some more detail on what I am attempting to accomplish.

We are scanning a tissue slide at high resolution (pathology application). I write the interface to the actual scanner. We use a line-scan camera. To test the line rate of the camera, the user scans a very small portion and looks at the image.

The image is displayed next to a track bar. When the user moves the track bar (adjusting line rate), I change the overall intensity of the image in an attempt to model what it would look like at the new line rate. I do this using an ImageAttributes and ColorMatrix object currently.

When the user adjusts the track bar, I adjust the matrix. This does not give me per pixel information, but the performance is very nice. I could use LockBits and some unsafe code here, but I would rather not rewrite it if possible. When the new image is created, I would like for all pixels with a brightness value of > 240 to be colored red. I was thinking that defining a palette for the bitmap up front would be a clean way of doing this.