We propose a novel bio-inspired algorithm to enhance the color image under low or non-uniform lighting conditions that models global and local adaptation of the human visual system.The proposed method consists of three parts:a preliminary global luminance adjustment followed by local contrast enhancement and color restoration.The global luminance adjustment increases the luminance of darker pixels and compresses the dynamic range as well.The local contrast enhancement adjusts the intensity of each pixel based on its relative magnitude with respect to the bilateral filter output of its neighboring pixels.Then a linear color restoration process is applied to convert the enhanced intensity image back to a color image.Experimental results of the proposed method and reference are compared and analyzed to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.