1. An image processing apparatus for displaying a live view image obtained by applying special effect processing on an image data, comprising: an image data generation unit that generates an image data; a memory unit that stores a plurality of sets of special effect processing parameters to be used for generating a plurality of different sets of special effect image data; a special effect processing sequence setting unit that sets a special effect processing sequence to apply a plurality of types of special effect processing on the image data; a image processing unit that applies the plurality of types of special effect processing on the image data with the plurality of sets of special effect processing parameters according to the special effect processing sequence to generate the plurality of different sets of special effect image data corresponding respectively to the plurality of types of special effect processing; a special effect processing parameters switching unit that switches the plurality of sets of special effect processing parameters to be put into the image processing unit; a synthesis coefficient setting unit that sets a synthesis coefficient to be used to synthesize the different special effect image data; a synthesis unit that synthesizes the different special effect image data; and a display unit that displays the synthesized image data.