Using JAI to rotate a grayscale image increases contrast

I am trying to use JAI to do a rotation task on an image. I can get this to work with no problem. However, there is a serious loss of midtones in the image. The image can be rotated in Photoshop without this lack of contrast.

Please see the following 3 images side by side to see what I mean:

http://imgur.com/SYPhZ.jpg

The top image is the original, the middle is rotated in Photoshop to prove it can be done, and the bottom is from my code.

To see actual images see here:

Before the turn: http://imgur.com/eiAOO.jpg After the turn: http://imgur.com/TTUKS.jpg

You can see the problem most clearly if you load images in two different tabs and move between them.

In terms of code, I am loading an image like this:

  public void testIt() throws Exception {

    File source = new File("c:\\STRIP.jpg");
    FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(source);
    BufferedImage sourceImage = ImageIO.read(fis);
    fis.close();

    BufferedImage rotatedImage = doRotate(sourceImage, 15);
    FileOutputStream output = new FileOutputStream("c:\\STRIP_ROTATED.jpg");
    ImageIO.write(rotatedImage, "JPEG", output);

}

      

        
        
        
      

    

and then the rotation function;

 public BufferedImage doRotate(BufferedImage input, int angle) {
    int width = input.getWidth();
    int height = input.getHeight();


    double radians = Math.toRadians(angle / 10.0);

    // Rotate about the input image centre
    AffineTransform rotate = AffineTransform.getRotateInstance(radians, width / 2.0, height / 2.0);

    Shape rect = new Rectangle(width, height);

    // Work out how big the rotated image would be..
    Rectangle bounds = rotate.createTransformedShape(rect).getBounds();

    // Shift the rotated image into the centre of the new bounds
    rotate.preConcatenate(
            AffineTransform.getTranslateInstance((bounds.width - width) / 2.0, (bounds.height - height) / 2.0));

    BufferedImage output = new BufferedImage(bounds.width, bounds.height, input.getType());
    Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) output.getGraphics();

    // Fill the background with white
    g2d.setColor(Color.WHITE);
    g2d.fill(new Rectangle(width, height));

    RenderingHints hints = new RenderingHints(RenderingHints.KEY_RENDERING, RenderingHints.VALUE_RENDER_QUALITY);
    hints.put(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING, RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);

    g2d.setRenderingHints(hints);
    g2d.drawImage(input, rotate, null);

    return output;
}