A method and apparatus obtains an image of a proper brightness in various scenes in which it is difficult to appropriately determine the brightness of an image. The apparatus includes a unit which extracts luminance components from image data, a unit which obtains on a predetermined scale the distribution of the extracted luminance components, a unit which sets a middle luminance value for the image data, corrects a luminance value larger than the middle luminance value in the converted luminance distribution to decrease a luminance value before scale conversion that corresponds to the larger luminance value, and corrects a luminance value smaller than the middle luminance value to increase a luminance value before scale conversion that corresponds to the smaller luminance value, and a unit which reproduces the image data by using the enhanced luminance distribution as a new image luminance distribution.