Patent ID: 8902326

Claim:
A method of enhancing an appearance of a face within a digital image, comprising using a processor in: acquiring a digital image of a scene including a depiction of a face, including capturing the image using a lens and an image sensor, or receiving said image following capture by a device that includes a lens and an image sensor, or a combination thereof; identifying a face region, wherein the face region is a region of the digital image that includes the depiction of the face; wherein the face region includes less than all of said digital image; identifying within the face region one or more sub-regions to be enhanced with localized luminance smoothing; wherein each of the one or more sub-regions includes less than all of said face region; applying one or more localized luminance smoothing kernels each to one of the one or more sub-regions identified within the face region to produce one or more enhanced sub-regions within the face region, wherein the applying comprises applying the one or more localized luminance smoothing kernels to luminance data of the one or more sub-regions identified within said face region; wherein the step of applying one or more localized smoothing kernels further comprises applying, to each particular sub-region of the one or more sub-regions, a localized smoothing kernel configured based, at least in part, on an average luminance around a point of interest for that particular sub-region; generating an enhanced image including an enhanced version of the face region comprising certain original or otherwise processed pixels in combination with pixels corresponding to the one or more enhanced sub-regions within the face region; and displaying, transmitting, communicating or digitally storing or otherwise outputting the enhanced image or a further processed version, or combinations thereof.