Apparatus and method for capturing and blending multiple images for high-quality flash photography using mobile electronic device

An electronic device comprising:

• at least one camera;
• a flash;
• and
• at least one processing device configured to:
• capture multiple ambient images of a scene using the at least one camera and without using the flash;
• capture multiple flash images of the scene using the at least one camera and during firing of a pilot flash sequence using the flash;
• analyze multiple pairs of images to estimate exposure differences obtained using the flash, wherein each pair of images includes one of the ambient images and one of the flash images that are both captured using a common camera exposure, and wherein different pairs of images are captured using different camera exposures;
• determine a flash strength for the scene based on the estimate of the exposure differences;
• and
• fire the flash based on the determined flash strength.

A non-transitory machine-readable medium containing instructions that when executed cause at least one processor of an electronic device to:

• capture multiple ambient images of a scene using at least one camera of the electronic device and without using a flash of the electronic device;
• capture multiple flash images of the scene using the at least one camera of the electronic device and during firing of a pilot flash sequence using the flash;
• analyze multiple pairs of images to estimate exposure differences obtained using the flash, wherein each pair of images includes one of the ambient images and one of the flash images that are both captured using a common camera exposure, and wherein different pairs of images are captured using different camera exposures;
• determine a flash strength for the scene based on the estimate of the exposure differences;
• and
• fire the flash based on the determined flash strength.