This paper is devoted to the study of local scales (oscillations) in images and use the knowledge of local scales for image decompositions. Denote by K-t(x)=(e(-2 pi t vertical bar xi vertical bar 2))(v)(x), t>o, the Gaussian (heat) kernel. Motivated from the Triebel-Lizorkin function space F-p,infinity(alpha), we define a local scale of f at x to be t(x) >= 0 such that vertical bar Sf(x, t)vertical bar=vertical bar t(1-alpha/2)partial derivative K-t/partial derivative t*f(x)vertical bar is a local maximum with respect to t for some alpha < 2. For each x, we obtain a set of scales that f exhibits at x. The choice of a and a local smoothing method of local scales via the nontangential control will be discussed. We then extend the work in [J.B. Garnett, T.M. Le. Y. Meyer, L.A. Vese, Image decomposition using bounded variation and homogeneous Besov spaces, Appl. Comput. Harmon. Anal. 23 (2007) 25-56] to decompose f into u + v, with u being piecewise-smooth and v being texture, via the minimization problem inf(u is an element of BV){kappa(u) = vertical bar u vertical bar(BV) + lambda parallel to K-<(t)over bar>(.)*(f - u)(.)parallel to(L1)}, where (t) over bar (x) is some appropriate choice of a local scale to be captured at x in the oscillatory part V. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.