Patent US 8,306,324

This invention relates to an image processing method and image processing apparatus for improving the image quality of the boundary part of an image cut-out or deletion area. According to this method, an area specified by a user as a cut-out or deletion target area is slightly reduced or enlarged to eliminate an undesirable background area. In image cut-out, the cut-out image side is shaded off. In image deletion, the background image side is shaded off. This increases the image quality at the joint between the boundary part of the cut-out image and an image to be composited. The image quality between the remaining background image and the deletion part also improves.