1. A system for selective color processing, the system comprising: one or more processors and a non-transitory computer-readable medium having executable instructions encoded thereon such that when executed, the one or more processors perform operations of: receiving a multi-band image as input; applying a metric function to the multi-band image to generate a distance map, wherein the distance map comprises a plurality of intensities which vary based on a similarity between an intensity of a pixel color and an intensity of a target color of interest; applying a contrast enhancement process to the distance map to normalize the distance map to a range of values; expanding the range of values of the distance map near the intensity of the target color of interest; and generating an output response map for the target color of interest having value ranges to aid in detection and recognition processes, wherein the output response map comprises a plurality of regions, and wherein the output response map has high responses in regions which contain colors similar to the target color of interest in the multi-band image.