We consider a new approach for enhancing the discrimination performance of the VanderLugt correlator. Instead of trying to optimize the correlation filter, or propose a new decision correlation peak detection criterion, we propose herein to denoise the correlation plane before applying the peak-to-correlation energy (PCE) criterion. For that purpose, we use a linear functional model to express a given correlation plane as a linear combination of the correlation peak, noise, and residual components. The correlation peak is modeled using an orthonormalized function and the singular value decomposition method. A set of training correlation planes is then selected to create the correlation noise components. Finally, an optimized correlation plane is reconstructed while discarding the noise components. Independently of the filter correlation used, this technique denoises the correlation plane by lowering the correlation noise magnitude in case of true correlation and decreases the false alarm rate when the target image does not belong to the desired class. Test results are presented, using a composite filter and a face recognition application, to verify the effectiveness of the proposed technique.