Face recognition is an active research area because of the importance of its application
areas. Face recognition as almost all image processing based systems begin with acquired
images elementary processing. The elementary processing is to enhance and/or highlight
features. The elementary processing phase sets up ceiling on the recognition ability since
any lost feature cannot easily recovered in consequent steps. Also, false features add
ambiguities to the problem and may lead to wrong conclusions. This study proposes basic
filters oriented towards face feature extraction. The proposed filters are basic natural non-
square, BANAN, directive-symmetric filters. So, at each typical pixel point the filters
provide four readings (North, South, East, and West).The readings measure the divergence
from the point of study between the interior and the exterior in the specified direction. The
filters experimental results show competitive performance compared to the Sobel and the
Prewitt filters.