Patent attributes
An image pickup apparatus, for controlling actual flash amount at the time of exposure based on an amount of reflected light from a predetermined metering region of a screen, comprises a first screen dividing section for dividing the screen into a first region, constituting a candidate for the metering region, and a second region other than that by comparing first feature data of image data that has been acquired by performing pre-flash before actual flash and second feature data of image data taken without performing pre-flash, a second screen dividing section for dividing the screen into a third region, being a region of an image having a predetermined feature, and a fourth region other than that, an image evaluation section for evaluating whether to include in the metering region or remove from the metering region based on different evaluation criteria according to whether the image of the third region or the fourth region belongs to the first region, or belongs to the second region, and a flash amount control section for controlling actual flash amount based on reflected light amount from regions that have been included in the metering region by the image evaluation section.
