In this work is presented a method for the optimization of digital correlators to improve the characteristic detection on images using wavelet transform as well as subband filtering. It is proposed an approach of wavelet-based image contrast enhancement in order to increase the performance of digital correlators. The multiresolution representation is employed to improve the high frequency content of images taken into account the input contrast measured for the original image. The energy of correlation peaks and discrimination level of several objects are improved with this technique. To demonstrate the potentiality in extracting characteristics using the wavelet transform, small objects inside reference images are detected successfully.