Patent ID: 8294795

Claim:
An image capturing apparatus comprising: an image capturing unit capturing an image of a subject to generate image data; a generating unit generating a blurred image from the image data; a detecting unit detecting a main subject area included in the image data; a calculating unit calculating an evaluation value regarding a brightness based on an image of the main subject area among the blurred image, and calculating an improvement amount of lightness used for performing a correction on dark part gradation of the image data generated by the image capturing unit based on the evaluation value being calculated; a photometry unit performing a photometry by dividing the subject into a plurality of areas; a first photometric calculating unit calculating a first exposure control value based on a result of the photometry by the photometry unit; and a second photometric calculating unit calculating a second exposure control value different from the first exposure control value based on the result of the photometry by the photometry unit, wherein: the image capturing unit captures the image of the subject according to the second exposure control value when performing the correction on the dark part gradation; and the calculating unit calculates the improvement amount of lightness based on the evaluation value and the second exposure control value.