diff --git a/wagtail/wagtailimages/templatetags/wagtailimages_tags.py b/wagtail/wagtailimages/templatetags/wagtailimages_tags.py
index 385366a2a7..9f2a4343c1 100644
--- a/wagtail/wagtailimages/templatetags/wagtailimages_tags.py
+++ b/wagtail/wagtailimages/templatetags/wagtailimages_tags.py
@@ -9,13 +9,13 @@ register = template.Library()
 @register.tag(name="image")
 def image(parser, token):
     bits = token.split_contents()[1:]
-    image_var = bits[0]
+    image_expr = parser.compile_filter(bits[0])
     filter_spec = bits[1]
     bits = bits[2:]
 
     if len(bits) == 2 and bits[0] == 'as':
         # token is of the form {% image self.photo max-320x200 as img %}
-        return ImageNode(image_var, filter_spec, output_var_name=bits[1])
+        return ImageNode(image_expr, filter_spec, output_var_name=bits[1])
     else:
         # token is of the form {% image self.photo max-320x200 %} - all additional tokens
         # should be kwargs, which become attributes
@@ -25,14 +25,14 @@ def image(parser, token):
                 name, value = bit.split('=')
             except ValueError:
                 raise template.TemplateSyntaxError("'image' tag should be of the form {% image self.photo max-320x200 [ custom-attr=\"value\" ... ] %} or {% image self.photo max-320x200 as img %}")
-            attrs[name] = parser.compile_filter(value) # setup to resolve context variables as value
+            attrs[name] = parser.compile_filter(value)  # setup to resolve context variables as value
 
-        return ImageNode(image_var, filter_spec, attrs=attrs)
+        return ImageNode(image_expr, filter_spec, attrs=attrs)
 
 
 class ImageNode(template.Node):
-    def __init__(self, image_var_name, filter_spec, output_var_name=None, attrs={}):
-        self.image_var = template.Variable(image_var_name)
+    def __init__(self, image_expr, filter_spec, output_var_name=None, attrs={}):
+        self.image_expr = image_expr
         self.output_var_name = output_var_name
         self.attrs = attrs
         self.filter_spec = filter_spec
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ class ImageNode(template.Node):
 
     def render(self, context):
         try:
-            image = self.image_var.resolve(context)
+            image = self.image_expr.resolve(context)
         except template.VariableDoesNotExist:
             return ''
 
diff --git a/wagtail/wagtailimages/tests/tests.py b/wagtail/wagtailimages/tests/tests.py
index 66365f36a5..bba1e1f9ca 100644
--- a/wagtail/wagtailimages/tests/tests.py
+++ b/wagtail/wagtailimages/tests/tests.py
@@ -43,6 +43,10 @@ class TestImageTag(TestCase):
         self.assertTrue('height="300"' in result)
         self.assertTrue('alt="Test image"' in result)
 
+    def test_image_tag_none(self):
+        result = self.render_image_tag(None, "width-500")
+        self.assertEqual(result, '')
+
     def render_image_tag_as(self, image, filter_spec):
         temp = template.Template('{% load wagtailimages_tags %}{% image image_obj ' + filter_spec + ' as test_img %}<img {{ test_img.attrs }} />')
         context = template.Context({'image_obj': image})
@@ -70,6 +74,16 @@ class TestImageTag(TestCase):
         self.assertTrue('class="photo"' in result)
         self.assertTrue('title="my wonderful title"' in result)
 
+    def render_image_tag_with_filters(self, image):
+        temp = template.Template('{% load wagtailimages_tags %}{% image image_primary|default:image_alternate width-400 %}')
+        context = template.Context({'image_primary': None, 'image_alternate': image})
+        return temp.render(context)
+
+    def test_image_tag_with_filters(self):
+        result = self.render_image_tag_with_filters(self.image)
+        self.assertTrue('width="400"' in result)
+        self.assertTrue('height="300"' in result)
+
 
 class TestMissingImage(TestCase):
     """