The invention is applicable to the field of improvement on a computer vision technology, and provides a face recognition method based on joint sparse discriminant analysis. The method comprises steps: A, a database for storing face training images with known identities is built; B, detection on a face with a to-be-detected identity and data acquisition are carried out, and a face database with authentication is built; C, feature extraction is carried out on to-be-authenticated face data and training data, and a discriminant analysis model based on joint sparse representation is built; and D, by using the training data after feature extraction in the step C and the to-be-authenticated data and in combination of corresponding label information, a nearest neighbor classifier is used for discriminant analysis, and a face recognition result is calculated. By adopting the joint sparse discriminant analysis to recognize the to-be-authenticated face image, the authentication accuracy is improved, and the recognition robustness in a condition with multiple changes of the to-be-authenticated face in aspects such as light, angle, expression, disguise and gesture can be effectively improved.