Abstract: An improved layered adaptive image enhancement method is proposed by combining the Laplacian pyramid mode and anisotropic filtering. First high dynamic range compression was realized by bilateral filter. Then Laplacian pyramid model was adopted to decompose the image into a set of band pass filtered images. Moreover, an improved forward and backward anisotropic diffusion filtering algorithm (FBAD) was designed, which can adjust the diffusion parameters adaptively. Applying the FBAD filtering algorithm to layered band pass filtered images, through selecting different diffusing thresholds, the noise of image could be removed and the edges of the images be sharpened. Comparative study on experimental results of FBAD and other image enhancement algorithms shows the effectiveness of the proposed method.