Apparatus and method for image processing

An image processing method, comprising the steps of:

• computing a proper amount of image correction based on image data of an image of an original input by photoelectrically reading the image of said original, reading out from a digital camera or an image data recording medium, or downloading via communication lines;
• performing image processing based on the thus computed proper amount of image correction;
• and
• outputting a processed image based on results of the image processing;
• wherein the proper amount of image correction automatically computed in the step of computing the proper amount of image correction is evaluated for a degree of correctness and a warning is given when said degree of correctness is low;
• wherein the evaluation is performed prior to the image processing.

An image processing apparatus, comprising:

• an image correcting amount computing unit for computing a proper amount of image correction based on image data of an image of an original delivered from an image input unit by which the image data of the image of the original was input by photoelectrically reading the image of the original, or reading out from a digital camera or an image data recording medium, or downloading via communication lines;
• an image processing unit for performing image processing based on the proper amount of image correction computed by said image correcting amount computing unit to thereby produce a processed image;
• a display unit for displaying for monitoring the processed image obtained by said image processing unit;
• and
• a verifying unit in which an operator performs an input operation for verifying an image belonging to a group of images in which correction is performed in different directions for said proper amount of image correction automatically computed by said image correcting amount computing unit;
• wherein the input operation for verifying the image is performed by the operator prior to the image processing, and the image for which the correction is performed in the different directions for the proper amount of image correction is a failure image and the group of the images in which the correction is performed in the different directions for the proper amount of image correction is a group that contains images taken with unusual types of light sources and images having a color failure, and a group that contains images taken with backlight and images taken with an electronic flash.