Patent ID: 8009927

Claim:
A tone correcting apparatus for correcting a tone of an image input thereto, the apparatus comprising a processor which is programmed to function as units including: a region setting unit that sets a plurality of block regions in the image; a first acquiring unit that acquires first brightness information indicating brightness of a target region that is selected from among the block regions set by the region setting unit; a second acquiring unit that acquires second brightness information indicating brightness of block regions that are adjacent to a block region that is set as the target region, the block regions being included in the block regions set by the region setting unit; a third acquiring unit that acquires third brightness information in accordance with a combination of the first brightness information that is acquired by the first acquiring unit and the second brightness information that is acquired by the second acquiring unit; a first correction characteristic setting unit that sets a first correction characteristic to a center pixel of each of the block regions, the first correction characteristic having a gain corresponding to the third brightness information that is acquired by the third acquiring unit; a face detecting unit that detects a face portion where a human face is positioned in the image; a fourth acquiring unit that acquires fourth brightness information indicating average brightness of the face portion detected by the face detecting unit; a second correction characteristic setting unit that sets a second correction characteristic having a gain corresponding to the fourth brightness information that is acquired by the fourth acquiring unit; a first gain limit setting unit that sets a first gain limit coefficient to a nearest center pixel among the center pixels of the block regions, the nearest center pixel being nearest to a center pixel of the face portion that is detected by the face detecting unit, the first gain limit coefficient being set as a ratio between the first correction characteristic that is set by the first correction characteristic setting unit and the second correction characteristic that is set by the second correction characteristic setting unit; and a second gain limit setting unit that sets a second gain limit coefficient to the center pixels of the block regions except the nearest center pixel that is nearest to the center pixel of the face portion that is detected by the face detecting unit, the second gain limit coefficient being set based on the third brightness information that is acquired by the third acquiring unit.