A robust method to compensation illumination of driver video color image to enhance image quality has been proposed. Firstly, the original image is decomposed into high-frequency image and low-frequency image based on spatial image decomposition. The illumination information is completely contained in the low-frequency image. Next, low-frequency image is compensated by using Retinex approach which can brighten the darker area. Then, the compensated low-frequency image and high-frequency image are synthesized. Finally, new image is obtained by illumination balance of synthesized image. Results show that the algorithm has better results compared with the traditional algorithm.