In face recognition, searching and retrieval of relevant images from a large database form a major task. Recognition time is greatly related to the dimensionality of the original data and the number of training samples. This demands the selection of discriminant features that produce similar results as the entire set and a reduced search space. To address this issue, a Multi-Level Search Space Reduction framework for large scale face image database is proposed. The proposed approach identifies discriminating features and groups face images sharing similar properties using feature-weighted Fuzzy C-Means approach. A hierarchical tree model is then constructed inside every cluster based on the discriminating features which enables a branch based selection, thereby reducing the search space. The proposed framework is tested on three benchmark and two self-created databases. The experimental results show that the proposed method achieved an average accuracy of 93% and an average search time reduction of 66% compared to existing approaches for search space reduction of face recognition.