Patent ID: 7764880

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus, for controlling an actual flash amount at the time of exposure based on an amount of reflected light from specified metering regions of a screen, comprising: a first screen dividing section for dividing the screen into a first region constituting a candidate for the metering region, and a second region different from the first region, by comparing first feature data of image data acquired by carrying out a pre-flash before an actual flash, and second feature data of image data obtained without carrying out the 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 different from the third region; an image evaluation section for evaluating if an image of the third region or the fourth region is included in the metering region or removed from the metering region based on different evaluation criteria according to whether the image belongs to the first region or belongs to the second region; and a flash amount control section for controlling the actual flash amount based on an amount of reflected light from the region included in the metering region by the image evaluation section.