To effectively remove halo in an image processing method and an image processing apparatus for compressing the dynamic range of an image to convert the image to an image suitable for image recording or image display. The means for achieving this purpose comprises, in an image processing method for compressing the dynamic range of an image, an inputting step of inputting image data; a low frequency component calculating step of calculating the low frequency component of the input image data for each pixel; an image processing step of calculating an image process value for each pixel by use of an equation indicated below; and an outputting step of outputting image data including the image process value calculated in the image processing step. Snp=a1Snus+a2(Snf-Snus), where Snp represents an image process value, a1 and a2 are coefficients (0