JPH0630373A - Electronic still camera with special effect function and reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the electronic still camera which obtains an effect of picking up a light spreading radially from one point of an object with high brightness in a crossing or equivalent form onto a picture such as a special effect equivalent to a cross filter through simple operation without use of an optical filter. CONSTITUTION:A picture signal of an object image formed on an image pickup element 3 is converted into a digital signal by an A/D converter 4 and a prescribed video signal is generated by a signal processing circuit 5. The video signal from the signal processing circuit 5 is tentatively stored in a picture memory 8, the picture is sequentially read by a memory controller 9 and displayed on a display means 10. When a selection means 13 selects the special effect mode, position information with high brightness and more than a prescribed level is stored in an auxiliary memory area 11 and stored on a memory card 6 as additional information together with the picture. The picture having the equal effect to that of a cross filter is reproduced with a simple operation at reproduction.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is designed to provide light that spreads from one point of a very bright subject in a radial or cross-like form (for example, a cross filter, which has the same effect as a filter that spreads light in a ripple pattern). The present invention relates to an electronic still camera and a playback device that can be artificially created and imprinted on a subject screen.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a silver halide camera, an optical filter for special effects has been put into practical use, which can obtain various special effects when mounted in front of a taking lens. For example, there are a filter configured by a polyhedron prism and separating incident light into a plurality of objects to obtain several object images, and a transparent filter having fine irregularities on the entire surface to obtain a soft focus effect. There is also a so-called cross filter. This is a transparent optical filter having several grooves formed on the surface thereof, and is used for the purpose of generating light streaks centering on a high-luminance portion of a subject.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the construction of an optical system and a photographing system when this optical cross filter is used. The image of the subject 36 is formed on the film surface 34 by the master optical system 32. The exposure and the exposure amount are controlled by the diaphragm 33 and the shutter 35. When the cross filter 31 is mounted in front of the master optical system 32, the film surface 3
An image with radial streaks of light centered on the high-luminance portion of the subject 36 is formed on the image surface 4. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an image photographed with the cross filter attached. The number of light stripes 37 on the image and the respective angles thereof are determined by the respective angles of the grooves formed on the surface of the cross filter.

By using this optical cross filter in an electronic still camera as well, a special effect similar to that of a silver halide camera can be obtained. However, there were problems in the following points. Problems with the characteristics of the cross filter. Since the cross filter is formed by forming a groove on the surface of a transparent optical filter, it is necessary to make sure that the position of the groove is out of focus when taking a picture with the filter attached.
Specifically, it is necessary to shoot with a lens that has a long focal length, and do not stop the aperture too much. In the case of an electronic still camera, the size of the image sensor is smaller than the film surface of the silver halide camera, so the focal length of the taking lens is short. For example, in order to obtain the same angle of view as a standard lens (a focal length of about 50 mm) of a Leica-type silver halide camera, an electronic still camera needs to use a lens with a focal length of about 10 mm. As described above, since the lens of the electronic still camera is a wide-angle lens, it has a large depth of field, and when a cross filter is used, the groove on the optical system filter is reflected.

A special filter such as a cross filter is often not used in normal photographing, and it is very troublesome to carry it with each photographing. For this reason, some silver halide cameras have a structure in which these special effect filters are built in the main body so that they can be added to the master optical system as needed. However, in this case, the structure becomes complicated, resulting in lack of compactness, and the production cost increases. In shooting with a cross filter, an image with light streaks cannot be restored to an original image with no light streaks once shot.

Therefore, the inventor of the present invention takes advantage of the advantage of the electronic still camera, which is easier to perform image processing than the silver salt camera, first performs normal photographing, and then the luminance of the photographed image is high. It was considered to extract a part and add the light streaks around the part by image processing. If this method is adopted, no problem will occur even when shooting with a lens having any focal length, and it is considered that the above problem can be solved without having to carry an optical filter separately from the camera body.

[0007]

However, there remains a problem that it is difficult to extract a high brightness portion from a photographed image. CCD, which is a typical image pickup device of an electronic still camera, has a characteristic that the dynamic range for exposure is very narrow as compared with a silver salt film and the like, and it is only about 7 EV. On the other hand, since a general subject has a brightness difference within the dynamic range within the screen,
A region where the brightness is saturated easily occurs. For this reason,
A portion having extremely high luminance, which corresponds to the center of the streak of the light of the cross filter, cannot be distinguished from other areas in which the luminance is saturated and cannot be detected.

Incidentally, as a means for obtaining a proper exposure by solving the narrow dynamic range of the CCD, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-2667.
68 (electronic still camera) has been proposed. this is,
When the difference in brightness of the subject is large, you can change the exposure to take multiple images, eliminate exposure mistakes, and create a composite image by image processing from the multiple images after shooting to create a wide range on the image. On the other hand, it is intended to obtain a sufficient gradation. However, this proposal reduces the number of images that can be recorded on the recording medium in order to capture and record a plurality of images. Particularly, in the case of a digital recording type electronic still camera, the recording medium is expensive and the recording capacity is not sufficient, which is disadvantageous. The present invention is to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to capture an image of light that spreads radially from one point of a high-brightness subject in a cross or a form similar thereto, for example, a special effect equivalent to a cross filter, An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic still camera that can be obtained by a simple operation without using an optical filter and without reducing the number of shots per recording medium.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, an electronic still camera having a special effect function according to the present invention is an electronic still camera for recording an image picked up by an image pickup means on a recording medium. And a special effect recording mode selecting means for specifying a mode for recording the pattern, and when the special effect mode is specified, a subject image is picked up with an appropriate exposure and recorded on a recording medium, and then a constant value is obtained for the proper exposure. Of the subject image captured by the capture control means by controlling the exposure value to be lower than that of the subject, and the brightness level in the subject image captured by the capture control means is higher than a certain level. Recording control means for detecting the position and recording the detected position information in a predetermined recording area in the recording medium in association with the subject image. There. Further, the present invention is, in addition to the above configuration, a storage unit for storing a pattern of light that spreads radially, special effect reproduction mode selection means for selecting a mode for adding the light pattern to an image during reproduction,
When receiving the instruction signal from the reproduction mode selection means, position information is read from the recording area in the recording medium, and the light pattern stored in the storage unit is set at the position indicated by the position information of the image to be reproduced. And a reproduction control means for synthesizing.

[0010]

According to the above construction, it is possible to correspond to a lens having any focal length, and the effect of producing light in a radially expanded form without using a special optical cross filter, for example, the same effect as the cross filter can be obtained. Obtainable.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an electronic still camera having a special effect function according to the present invention. This figure shows the recording blocks of an electronic still camera.
The optical image of the subject 1 is captured by the image pickup optical system 2 by the image pickup device 3
Is imaged on. The signal output from the image sensor 3 is A /
The D converter 4 converts the digital signal, and the signal processing circuit 5 creates a predetermined video signal. The video signal created by the signal processing circuit 5 is temporarily stored in the image memory 8. This control is performed by the CPU 7 and the memory controller 9 controlled by the CPU 7. While the subject is being imaged, the memory controller 9 sequentially reads the images stored in the image memory 8 and displays them on the display means 10 via the driver 12. The photographer can photograph a desired subject by pressing the release button 26 while looking at the displayed image. That is, when the release button 26 is pressed, the CPU 7 gives an instruction to the memory controller 9, and the image temporarily recorded in the image memory 8 is taken into the memory card 6 and recorded.

The CPU 7 is connected with a special effect recording mode selecting means 13 for selecting the cross filter mode. The photographer selects the cross filter mode in advance when he / she wants to take an image to obtain the effect of the cross filter. When the release button 26 is pressed, the CPU 7 records the image in the image memory 8 on the memory card 6 with proper exposure. Then, the aperture of the image pickup optical system 2 and the image pickup device 3 are controlled so that the exposure is lower than the proper exposure by a constant value.
In the state where the exposure is low by a certain value, the image of the same subject is taken in and the signal processing circuit 5 extracts a region having high brightness. The extracted data is written in the auxiliary memory area 11. The data written in the auxiliary memory area 11 is written by the memory controller 9 in association with the image data photographed and recorded in the memory card 6 with proper exposure. The acquisition control means and the recording control means are CPUs.
7, memory controller 9, auxiliary memory area 11 and the like.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the structure of image data recorded in the memory card. The header information 14 is an area in which the data structure of the entire memory card is recorded, and the memory card 6 is controlled based on this information. The image information 15 is information relating to the imaged image data. The additional information 16 is auxiliary data regarding each image information. The contents of the additional information include, for example, the date and time when the image was taken, the title of the image taken, information about the type of light source when the image was taken, information about the lens used for the image taking, shutter speed and aperture. The data in the auxiliary memory area 11 is written in this additional information 16.

Generally, a large-capacity memory is required for recording a full-color digital image. For example, let us consider NTSC image data composed of 768 pixels in the horizontal direction and 480 pixels in the vertical direction. If each pixel is quantized with 8 bits for each of the three color elements, 8M will be recorded.
More than a bit capacity is required. This is a capacity equivalent to one general floppy disk. Further, considering that such a capacity is recorded in the semiconductor memory, it is necessary to have about 10 1M-bit storage elements, which is very expensive. In this way, the additional information 16
It is not practical to record the image data in the original form as it is. In the present invention, image data captured at a low exposure by a fixed value is significantly compressed and recorded.

The operation under the control of the CPU 7 will be described below. FIG. 3A is a diagram showing an example of an A / D converter output of image data captured with proper exposure. The horizontal axis represents the horizontal scanning direction, and the vertical axis represents 8-bit data output at each point. A and B are bright areas of the subject, and are areas where the data is saturated. It is not possible to obtain information on how bright the portions A and B are. Figure 3
(B) is a figure which shows the A / D converter output of the image data image | photographed by low exposure by a fixed value. A ′ and B ′ are data corresponding to the positions of A and B, respectively. By lowering the exposure by a certain value in this way, it is possible to obtain the data of the saturated portion in FIG.

Then, the value is compared with a preset threshold value Q, and a portion larger than the threshold value Q is used as position information. In FIG. 3B, the position information of A ′ is the auxiliary memory area 1
It is recorded in 1. Since this data is binary data related to brightness, the data amount is about 370 Kbits,
The compressed data is 1 which is several tens of minutes of the original image data.
Furthermore, since this binary data does not change in most areas, it can be further compressed to several tens of minutes by run length coding. As a result, the data recorded in the auxiliary memory area 11 is less than 1/100.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a reproduction block of the electronic still camera according to the present invention. Memory card 18
The data recorded in (1) is read out to the image processing circuit 21 by the memory controller 19. For normal playback,
The image processing circuit 21 converts the image information into a predetermined data format and sends it to the D / A converter 22. Data is D / A converter 2
2 is converted into an analog video signal and then converted into a predetermined output signal by the encoder 23, and the monitor 24
Is output to. By reading the information in the memory card 18, the CPU 20 can recognize whether or not the additional information includes data related to a high-luminance portion. C
In the case where the additional information includes data related to a high-luminance portion and the special effect reproduction mode selection means 25 selects the special effect mode, the PU 20 receives the image processing circuit 21.
To recognize the position information read from the additional information,
For example, a preset pattern, which produces the same effect as the cross filter, is read and a cross pattern is generated at the recognized position. The image processing circuit 21 synthesizes the image with the cross pattern and outputs it to the monitor 24. The cross pattern is recorded in advance in the storage unit built in the CPU 20 and can be set to various patterns.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an image in which a special effect is added by image information and additional information. A street lamp 27 having a light emitting portion 27a with high brightness is shown in a part of the image in FIG. FIG. 5B shows a detection point 27a 'at a position with high brightness and above a certain level.
FIG. 5C shows an image in which the cross-shaped light pattern is replaced by the detection point 27a ′ and is combined with the image of FIG. 5A. Above, examples of cross patterns that achieve the same effect as a cross filter as a pattern of light that spreads radially have been shown. Other similar patterns, such as a pattern in which the moon covers a rainbow umbrella, or a ripple pattern ， There are things with fireworks open.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to realize an electronic still camera which can be applied to a lens having any focal length and which can obtain an image having an effect equivalent to that of a cross filter without having to carry an optical filter.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an electronic still camera having a special effect function according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing image data recorded in a memory card.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing data output levels when proper exposure and exposure are low by a fixed value.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a reproducing apparatus of the electronic still camera according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an image to which a special effect is added by image information and additional information.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining special photography using a normal optical cross filter.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an image of special photography of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 36 ... Subject 2 ... Imaging optical system 3 ... Imaging element 4 ... A / D converter 5 ... Signal processing circuit 6, 18 ... Memory card 7, 20 ... CPU 8 ... Image memory 9, 19 ... Memory controller 10 ... Display Means 11 ... Auxiliary memory area 13 ... Special effect recording mode selection means 14 ... Header information 15, 17 ... Image information 16 ... Additional information 21 ... Image processing circuit 22 ... D / A converter 23 ... Encoder 24 ... Monitor 25 ... Special effect Reproduction mode selection means 31 ... Cross filter 32 ... Master optical system 33 ... Aperture 34 ... Film 35 ... Shutter

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electronic still camera for recording an image picked up by an image pickup means on a recording medium, wherein a special effect recording mode selecting means for designating a mode for recording a pattern of light that spreads radially and the special effect mode are provided. When specified, a capturing control means for capturing an image of the subject by capturing the subject image with an appropriate exposure, recording the image on a recording medium, and controlling the exposure to be a value lower than the proper exposure by a certain value. A position in the subject image captured by the capture control means that has a high brightness level and is equal to or higher than a certain level is detected, and the detected position information is associated with the subject image to determine a predetermined position in the recording medium. An electronic still camera having a special effect function, comprising: recording control means for recording in a recording area. 2. A storage unit for storing a pattern of light that spreads radially, a special effect reproduction mode selection unit for selecting a mode for adding the light pattern to an image during reproduction, and an instruction from the reproduction mode selection unit. When receiving a signal, reproduction control means for reading the position information from the recording area in the recording medium and synthesizing the light pattern stored in the storage unit at the position indicated by the position information of the image to be reproduced, A reproducing apparatus comprising: