1. A method for automatically determining the contrast of an object in an image comprising the steps of: (a) providing an electronic image of the object; (b) identifying an edge amplitude of the object; (c) identifying an edge region of the object for a range of thresholds applied to the edge amplitude; (d) evaluating the edge region that is obtained for the range of thresholds, wherein a higher evaluation result indicates a better evaluation; (e) determining an optimum threshold that corresponds to a maximum edge region value; and (f) providing the optimum threshold that corresponds to the maximum edge region value, representing the contrast of the object.