Imaging apparatus and imaging method
First Claim
1. An imaging apparatus comprising:
- a light exposure condition determining unit that determines a plurality of exposure conditions based on a histogram of a luminance distribution of an imaging scene;
an imaging unit that images, plural times, the imaging scene under the plurality of exposure conditions determined by the light exposure condition determining unit, and generates first and second raw image signals before synthesizing the first and second raw image signals; and
an image synthesizing unit that synthesizes the first and second raw image signals using, as a boundary, a reference value contained in the first raw image signal to generate a synthesized image signal, whereinthe light exposure condition determining unit determines at least one of the plurality of exposure conditions so that the reference value contained in the first raw image signal corresponds to a luminance value at a bottom of a ravine of the histogram of the luminance distribution of the imaging scene.
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Abstract
An apparatus and method that determines an appropriate light exposure condition to generate an appropriate synthesized image signal for an imaging scene for which an appropriate light exposure condition cannot be obtained by conventional techniques. The apparatus includes a determining unit for determining a plurality of light exposure conditions based on a histogram of the luminance distribution of an imaging scene, an imaging unit for imaging, plural times, the scene under the plurality of determined light exposure conditions, and generating first and second raw image signals, and an image synthesizing unit for synthesizing the first and second raw image signals using, as a boundary, a reference value in the first raw image signal to generate a synthesized image signal. The determining unit determines at least one light exposure condition of the light exposure conditions so that the reference value in the first raw image signal corresponds to the luminance value at the bottom of a ravine of the histogram of the luminance distribution of the scene.
17 Citations
10 Claims
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1. An imaging apparatus comprising:
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a light exposure condition determining unit that determines a plurality of exposure conditions based on a histogram of a luminance distribution of an imaging scene; an imaging unit that images, plural times, the imaging scene under the plurality of exposure conditions determined by the light exposure condition determining unit, and generates first and second raw image signals before synthesizing the first and second raw image signals; and an image synthesizing unit that synthesizes the first and second raw image signals using, as a boundary, a reference value contained in the first raw image signal to generate a synthesized image signal, wherein the light exposure condition determining unit determines at least one of the plurality of exposure conditions so that the reference value contained in the first raw image signal corresponds to a luminance value at a bottom of a ravine of the histogram of the luminance distribution of the imaging scene. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An imaging method comprising:
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a light exposure condition determining step for determining a plurality of exposure conditions based on a histogram of a luminance distribution of an imaging scene; an imaging step for imaging, at plural times, the imaging scene under the plurality of exposure conditions determined by the light exposure condition determining step, and generating first and second raw image signals before synthesizing the first and second raw image signals; and an image synthesizing step for synthesizing the first and second raw image signals using, as a boundary, a reference value contained in the first raw image signal to generate a synthesized image signal, wherein the light exposure condition determining step determines at least one of the plurality of exposure conditions so that the reference value contained in the first raw image signal corresponds to a luminance value at a bottom of a ravine of the histogram of the luminance distribution of the imaging scene.
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Specification