A method is provided for enhancing the details of an image while
suppressing or preventing shoots that would otherwise occur during a
prior art enhancement process. The enhancing method is based on
recognizing that Shoots are likely to occur at edges of an image to be
enhanced, and therefore, if the enhancement is sufficiently reduced or
even possibly eliminated at the edges of the image, the Shoots that would
otherwise occur will be suppressed or even possibly eliminated. A gain
suppressing function is used to attenuate the enhancement at the edges of
the image. Preferably, the gain suppressing function inherently
identifies the edges of the image to be enhanced.