A bright point detecting method is provided comprising selecting a cluster of pixels in the image to be processed which are higher in the luminance than a predetermined threshold; counting the number of the pixels of each group along two or more directions and selecting the group of pixels of which the number is not higher than a bright point permissive size of the pixels, calculating the evaluation of each pixel in the cluster with the use of an evaluation function based on the count and identifying the center pixel of the group from the evaluation, and selectively determining as the bright point pixel, the center pixel at the highest evaluation among the center pixels as located in a given area based on the bright point permissive size of the pixels. As a result, a more natural form of the cross filter effect can be applied to any digital image.