To resolve the degradation of color images caused by low illumination condition, a novel algorithm to improve the visibility of low illumination color images is proposed. At first, the illumination component is estimated using the color-bilateral filtering in YUV color space. And then, while the reflectance component being calculated, a contrast regulation function based on cumulative distribution is introduced to adaptively emphasize minute features of images. At last, a linear color restoration process is utilized to determine color values of the enhanced image. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is more effective and practicable, and the enhanced image can achieve an excellent global visual effect with clear details and natural colors.