Patent ID: 7190844

Claim:
An image processing method for applying an image processing to two dimensionally-arranged original image data corresponding to an entire image region of a photographed image including a main photographed-subject and for producing output image data, said method comprising: determining at least one of a main photographed-subject region of the main photographed-subject and a selected region of the two dimensionally-arranged original image data; setting the entire image region and one of the main photographed-subject region and the selected region as target regions; obtaining image characteristics from each of the target regions; calculating a granularity value and a sharpness value for each of the target regions from the respective image characteristics of the target regions, wherein each of the granularity value and the sharpness value is an evaluation criterion standardized with a functional value; and conducting an image processing for the two dimensionally-arranged original image data with reference to the granularity value and the sharpness value.