Identifying a scene illuminant by comparison of chromaticity values with stored possible illuminants

An image processing system (10) includes a sensor (12), a processor (14), and a memory (16). The sensor (12) is configured to capture data representative of a scene illuminated by an actual illuminant (22) and the processor (14) is configured to receive and process the captured data. The memory (16) is configured to store chromaticity data associated with a plurality of plausible illuminants (22). The processor (14) divides the captured data into a plurality of zones. The processor (14) also calculates an average chromaticity for each zone and compares the calculated chromaticity for each zone with the chromaticity data of the plausible illuminants (22). The processor (14) selects one of the plausible illuminants (22)based upon the comparison.