Photographing apparatus, photographing method and recording medium on which photographing/display program is recorded

A photographing apparatus comprising:

• an image pickup section picking up an image of an object to obtain a picked-up image;
• a display section displaying the picked-up image;
• a contrast judging section acquiring, for each of parts of a first picked-up image obtained by the image pickup section performing image pickup at a first timing, a reference contrast to be used for focus/unfocused judgment, the reference contrast being a point of focus determined by the contrast judging section to have a maximum value of contrast;
• the contrast judging section determining a recorded image contrast of each of parts of a second picked-up image obtained by the image pickup section performing image pickup for recording at a second timing prior to the first timing;
• a focus judging section judging, for each of the parts of the second picked-up image, a state of focus of the second picked-up image by comparing the reference contrast with the recorded image contrast for each of the parts of the second picked-up image;
• and
• a display control section displaying a guide display based on a judgment result judged by the focus judging section together with the second picked-up image on the display section, the guide display identifying a candidate area to be enlargedly displayed on the display section, the candidate area being a part of the second picked-up image judged by the focus judging section to have a contrast equal to or higher than the reference contrast,
• wherein the state of focus of the second picked up image is judged by the focus judging section to be in a focused state when the contrast of the candidate area is equal to or higher than the reference contrast.

A photographing method comprising:

• an image pickup step of picking up an image of an object to obtain a picked-up image;
• a first display control step of displaying the picked-up image on a display section;
• a contrast judging step of acquiring, for each of parts of a first picked-up image obtained in the image pickup step performing image pickup at a first timing, a reference contrast to be used for focused/unfocused judgment, the reference contrast being a point of focus having a maximum value of contrast;
• the contrast judging step of determining a recorded image contrast of each of parts of a second picked-up image obtained in the image pickup step performing image pickup for recording at a second timing later than the first timing;
• a focus judging step of judging, for each of the parts of the second picked-up image, a state of focus of the second picked-up image comparing the reference contrast with the contrast for each of the parts of the second picked-up image;
• and
• a second display control step of displaying a guide display on the display section, the guide display identifying a candidate area within the second picked up image to be displayed on the display section, the candidate area being a part of the second image judged by the focus judging section to have a contrast equal to or higher than the reference contrast,
• wherein the state of focus of the second picked up image is judged to be in a focused state when the contrast of the candidate area is equal to or higher than the reference contrast.