Image pickup apparatus, image pickup method , and image pickup control program

Abstract

When flash photography is performed, an exposure time at the time of the preliminary light emission of a flash is set as short as possible so that the appropriate amount of light required for the main light emission of the flash can be accurately computed regardless of the amount of external light. Before the main light emission of the flash, an exposure operation prior to preliminary light emission and an exposure operation at the time of preliminary light emission are performed. When the exposure operation prior to preliminary light emission is performed, after the exposure operations of all pixels included in a solid-state image pickup device have been simultaneously started at a time T91, the pixel signals of individual pixels are intermittently read out at predetermined pixel intervals at a time T92. When the exposure operation at the time of preliminary light emission is performed, after the exposure operations of all the pixels included in the solid-state image pickup device have been simultaneously started at a time T94, the preliminary light emission of the flash is performed. The pixel signals of individual pixels are intermittently read out at predetermined pixel intervals at a time T95. Subsequently, the brightness levels of images captured in the exposure operation prior to preliminary light emission and the exposure operation at the time of preliminary light emission are individually detected on the basis of the signals of the captured images. The amount of light required for the main light emission of the flash is computed on the basis of a difference detection value that is the difference between the brightness levels.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.