Provided is an image processing apparatus including a characteristic information acquisition unit that acquires characteristic information indicating a characteristic relating to at least any one of distribution of a specific brightness region and a size of a dark and flat region in a luminance image, an enhancement degree information generation unit that generates enhancement degree information indicating a degree of enhancement of a specific component that affects image quality of the luminance image, based on the characteristic information, and a luminance reproduction image generation unit that generates a luminance reproduction image obtained by reproducing the specific component of the luminance image so as to be enhanced to a degree of enhancement indicated by the enhancement degree information.