An embodiment of an image processing apparatus according to the present disclosure includes: an illuminating section which sequentially irradiates an object with a first illuminating light beam that is polarized in a first direction and with a second illuminating light beam that is polarized in a second direction that intersects with the first direction in a polarization image capturing mode and which irradiates the object with a non-polarized illuminating light beam in a non-polarization image capturing mode, and which emits the first and second illuminating light beams sequentially so that the wavelength range of the first illuminating light beam does not overlap with that of the second illuminating light beam somewhere； a polarization image sensor； a polarization mosaic processing section which obtains, in the polarization image capturing mode, a first polarization image while the object is being irradiated with the first illuminating light beam and a second polarization image while the object is being irradiated with the second illuminating light beam, and which obtains, in the non-polarization image capturing mode, a non-polarization image while the object is being irradiated with the non-polarized illuminating light beam； a depressed area detecting section which detects a depressed area on the surface of the object based on at least one of the first and second polarization images； and an image forming section which forms an image that represents the depressed area on the object's surface in an enhanced form.
