Abstract: A method and apparatus for adjusting the contrast of an input image is disclosed. Brightness level data of the input image is filtered to obtain at least a low frequency component and a high frequency component. The high frequency component is amplified. The input image and the amplified high frequency component are summed to produce brightness level data of the output image. The filtering is carried out by at least one recursive infinite impulse response filter having a single delay coefficient that is adaptive to areas of high contrast in the input image.