Patent ID: 7379213

Claim:
An image processing method of performing image processing using image data generated by an image generating device and image generating information that is associated with the image data and that includes at least aperture information and operation mode information at the time of generation of the image data, the method comprising: adjusting sharpness of the image data based on the aperture information and the operation mode information included in the image generating information, wherein the adjusting includes obtaining an aperture value used at the time of the image data generation from the aperture information, and determining whether or not the aperture value was set manually by a user, and wherein in case that it is determined that the aperture value was set manually and in case that the aperture value was set to a value in a prescribed range, strong sharpness adjustment is performed so that a degree of sharpness adjustment is higher than a value which would be taken in case that the aperture value were set under the standard photo-taking conditions of the image generating device.