A composite image having a natural appearance is obtained when a synthesis target image is combined with a background image. By photographing a subject under different photographic conditions, a plurality of synthesis target images are obtained and the resulting image data is stored beforehand in a synthesis target image memory. A background image is acquired by photography and a suitable synthesis target image to be combined with the background image is selected by a circuit which searches synthesis target images. A color correction is applied to the selected synthesis target image by an image processing circuit and the synthesis target image following the color correction is combined with the background image. Since a synthesis target image suitable for combination with a background image is selected and then is subjected to a color correction and image synthesis processing, a composite image having a natural appearance is obtained.