To provide an image playback apparatus that enables an image picked up and recorded with a wide dynamic range to be changed to the exposure desired by a viewer. An apparatus that performs image playback by outputting, to a monitor or printer, image data stored in an image storage unit such as built-in memory or a memory card, is equipped with a line-of-sight detection apparatus that detects the line-of-sight direction of the person viewing the image, or a touch panel, and is configured so that the area looked at by the viewer is automatically detected, or an arbitrary part of the screen can be specified by the viewer himself or herself from the touch panel. At first, conventional dynamic range playback is performed, then the dynamic range is changed, by changing the tone conversion curve, etc., for the part where the line-of-sight was detected within the screen, or the part specified by means of the touch panel, and a white-skip part or blackening part is reproduced appropriately.