An image reading unit acquires image data by reading a document, skin is detected from the image data, and skin processing is performed according to a detection result of detection of the skin. The image data is then corrected to have a predetermined data characteristic, and a second skin processing is performed on the image data based on a skin detection result. An image processing is conducted on the image data according to output characteristic, and then stored in a memory or a hard disk drive so as to be output as appropriate.