An image attention model and its application to image quality assessment are discussed in this paper. The attention model is based on rarity quantification, which is related to self-information to attract the attention in an image. It is relatively simpler than the others but results in taking more consideration of global contrasts between a pixel and the whole image. The visual attention model is used to develop a local distortion predictor, named color visual differences predictor (CVDP), in color images in order to effectively detect luminance and color distortions.