Patent ID: 8233788

Claim:
An illumination device configured to be used for taking a still photograph, the device comprising: a light emission unit which emits, continuously and at an approximately constant light emission amount, illumination light for photography; and a light emission control unit which controls the light emission unit and changes a light emission intensity of the illumination light during the acquisition of a single still image by exposing light of an object on an imaging unit provided in a photographic device, wherein the light emission control unit, during the acquisition of the single still image, causes the illumination light to emit continuously at a first light emission intensity in a first time period, and causes the illumination light to emit continuously at a second light emission intensity lower than the first light emission intensity in a second time period after the elapse of the first time period, and the light emission control unit changes the light emission intensity without a time gap between the first light emission intensity and the second light emission intensity.