As the algorithms based on local texture for face recognition can not well solve the problem of low resolution face recognition under varying illumination conditions,
a new phase texture representation is presented. The basic idea is to use the fourquadrant phase mask of Fourier Transform in a local neighborhood, with reducing the amplitude
response of the filter from the higher impact of the error filter response. And this can generate coding filter response with more discriminating. Comparing with local phase
quantization (LPQ) that is affected by noise impact and the impact of discrete effects, phase texture representation is more effective and stable. The experimental results on
the three databases CMUPIE, extended YALEB and AR show that the proposed algorithm is more descriptive than LPQ recognition and the widely used description like local binary
pattern (LBP), histogram of oriented gradients (HOG). For enhanced lighting conditions, the recognition grain rate of proposed algorithm is less than 1 percent, much better than
the three other algorithms in robust to illumination changes.