IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD AND IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS

An image processing method and apparatus arranged to output an image signal for reproducing an image of favorable quality without any considerable reduction in contrast and sharpness even from a high-contrast wide-dynamic-range image by performing dynamic range compression processing, which is as effective as the conventional dodging. Also, the method and apparatus are effective in reducing appearance of a pseudo edge band, which is caused when dynamic range compression is performed at a high compression ratio. A plurality of unsharp image signals representing unsharp images of an original image are generated from an image signal representing the original image. One synthesized unsharp image signal is generated from the plurality of unsharp image signals. The dynamic range compression processing is performed on the image signal of the original image on the basis of the synthesized unsharp image signal.