White balance control apparatus and method, and image pickup apparatus

A white balance control method comprising the steps of:

• (a) calculating and outputting evaluation values of color components of each of a plurality of regions of digital image data;
• (b) converting the evaluation values of each of the regions into a luminance value;
• (c) converting the evaluation values of each of the regions into a base white balance control amount;
• (d) calculating a non-weighted white balance control amount from the base white balance control amount and a weighted white balance control amount by performing weighting processing on the base white balance control amount by using the luminance value of each of the regions so that a region of higher luminance has a greater weight;
• and
• (e) calculating a white balance control amount to be applied to the image data at a time of image recording by using the weighted and non-weighted white balance control amounts.

An image pickup apparatus comprising:

• a control part controlling an operation of the entire image pickup apparatus;
• an image pickup part picking up an image of an object and converting data on the image into digital image data;
• a data processing part that processes the digital image data;
• an evaluation value calculation circuit calculating and outputting evaluation values of color components of each of a plurality of regions of the digital image data;
• a luminance conversion part converting the evaluation values of each of the regions into a luminance value;
• and
• a high-luminance weighting part converting the evaluation values of each of the regions into a base white balance control amount, calculating a non-weighted white balance control amount from the base white balance control amount and a weighted white balance control amount by performing weighting processing on the base white balance control amount by using the luminance value of each of the regions so that a region of higher luminance has a greater weight, and calculating a white balance control amount to be applied to the image data at a time of image recording by using the weighted and non-weighted white balance control amounts.