Image processing method and apparatus, integrated circuitry and recording medium

Image processing comprising receiving a first HDR image signal 205 representing a portion of a captured image with a first dynamic range and generating therefrom a second SDR image signal 203 having a lower dynamic range than the first high dynamic range. The second image is generated by applying one of: a first gain to increase the brightness value of each pixel in the first image having a brightness or luminance value less than a first threshold brightness value; and a second, negative, gain to decrease the brightness value of each pixel having a brightness value greater than a second threshold. After the application of first or second gains, converting 316 the resulting signal such that the brightness value of each pixel in the first image becomes represented in a second format with a lower dynamic range. Preferably, applying a gain involves assigning each pixel with a mask value depending on whether it is above or below a threshold 306, applying a low pass filter 310 to blur the resultant mask image and calculating a gain value 314 to be applied to each pixel based on the value of the corresponding pixel in the filtered mask.