IMAGING APPARATUS, IMAGING METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM

• US 20120127336A1
• Filed: 11/16/2011
• Published: 05/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: AOF Imaging Technology, Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: AOF Imaging Technology, Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: UEZONO, Tetsuji, SAKURAI, Junzo
• Application Number:
  US13/297,482
• Publication Number:
  US 20120127336A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/223.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/743 Bracketing, i.e. taking a series of images with varying exposure conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/88 for colour balance, e.g. white-balance circuits or colour temperature control

Abstract

The present invention provides an imaging apparatus which, when a dynamic range is expanded, even if a subject is irradiated by a plurality of different light sources, can apply adequate white balances to respective light sources. The imaging apparatus captures two images from an image sensor at different exposures when a preview image, which is input from the image sensor but is not captured yet, includes an area which is irradiated by the different light sources and which comprises the different brightnesses. The imaging apparatus then composes a dark area of the one image captured at the over exposure and applied a white balance to and a bright area of the other image captured at the under exposure and applied a white balance to.

Claims

1. An imaging apparatus comprising:

an image sensor;

a deciding unit which decides whether or not a preview image, which is input from the image sensor but is not captured yet, includes an area which is irradiated by different light sources and which comprises different brightnesses, based on a subject brightness and a color temperature of the preview image;

an image capturing control unit which captures two images from the image sensor at different exposures when the deciding unit decides that the preview image includes an area defined above; and

a composition unit which applies a white balance to one image captured at an over exposure, applies a white balance to the other image captured at an under exposure and composes a dark area of the one image captured at the over exposure and applied the white balance to and a bright area of the other image captured at the under exposure and applied the white balance to.

2. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the deciding unit decides whether or not to capture and compose two images at the different exposures according to a size of an area of an over exposure and a size of an area of a blocked-up shadow, based on histogram information of the preview image.

3. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the deciding unit extracts the color temperature of the preview image, and decides whether or not to perform composition according to a size of an area comprising a color temperature in a predetermined range.

6. The imaging apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the deciding unit extracts the color temperature of the preview image, and decides whether or not to perform composition according to a size of an area comprising a color temperature in a predetermined range.

4. An imaging method of an imaging apparatus comprising an image sensor, the method comprising:

deciding whether or not a preview image, which is input from the image sensor but is not captured yet, includes an area which is irradiated by different light sources and which comprises different brightnesses, based on a subject brightness and a color temperature of the preview image;

capturing two images from the image sensor at different exposures when it is decided that the preview image includes an area defined above;

applying a white balance to one image captured at an over exposure;

applying a white balance to the other image captured at an under exposure; and

composing a dark area of the one image captured at the over exposure and applied the white balance to and a bright area of the other image captured at the under exposure and applied the white balance to.

5. A computer program which causes a computer to execute image capturing processing of an imaging apparatus comprising an image capturing element, causing a computer to perform processing comprising:

deciding whether or not a preview image, which is input from the image sensor but is not captured yet, includes an area which is irradiated by different light sources and which comprises different brightnesses, based on a subject brightness and a color temperature of the preview image;

capturing two images from the image sensor at different exposures when it is decided that the preview image includes an area defined above;

applying a white balance to one image captured at an over exposure;

applying a white balance to the other image captured at an under exposure; and

composing a dark area of the one image captured at the over exposure and applied the white balance to and a bright area of the other image captured at the under exposure and applied the white balance to.