OpenEXR has become the standard image format among 3D and visual effects artists, as it supports a wide variety of compression options and is fast to save and load, making it superior to traditional formats like PNG and TIFF for this application.
Most implementations use OIIO as the image engine to handle color space stuff and additional formats like HDR, but OpenEXR can also be implemented on it's own I believe.
EXRs are typically 16-bit (they cannot be 8-bit), but can also be 32-bit. In the case of 32-bit images, the ability to adjust exposure/brightness without limits is crucial to usability.
Interesting, if you have any idea how to implement this I can include your source :D ... I started a fork though I don't know how to implement this at the moment