The present invention discloses a face image illumination compensation method. The method comprises the following steps that: step 1, classical retinex illumination compensation is performed on an original image; step 2, edge detection is performed, a pseudo edge is judged by using an equation (13), and a low-illuminance region C (x, y) corresponding to the pseudo edge is marked by using an equation (17); step 3, structural tensors and eigenvalues mu1 and mu2 corresponding to the structural tensors are obtained according to equations (14) and (16); step 4, values are re-assigned to mu1 and mu2, the values obtained in the step 2 and step 3 are introduced into an equation (20); and step 5, the environment function of the Retinex algorithm is improved, illumination processing is performed on the original image, and an illumination-compensated image is obtained by using an equation (5). With the method of the invention adopted, the inadequacies of traditional Retinex and PCNN in eliminating shadows and causing fogging phenomena in illumination compensation can be eliminated, shadows in the image can be diluted to a certain extent, the shadow edges of the image can be eliminated, detail information can be presented, a face recognition rate can be improved, and a face misjudgment rate can be decreased.