JPH0311332A - Camera and photographic printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To finish a picture to a color faithful to an object by recording information indicating the classification of the object on a photographic film and using this information to control the exposure at the time of photographic printing. CONSTITUTION:A bar code recorder 30 consists of a liquid crystal display device 31 on which a bar code is displayed and a flash discharging tube 32 which irradiates the display device 31, and object information is inprinted as the bar code between a picture 18a and the film edge just after photographing of the object. Since the classification of the object is detected by object informa tion recorded at the time of photographing, the exposure control to give impor tance to flesh color is performed for a figure picture and the exposure control according with the principle of Evans is performed for a scene picture. Thus, the exposure control is performed in accordance with the principal object to finish its picture to the most suitable color.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a camera that records subject information for identifying people and scenery, and a photographic printing method that utilizes subject information for exposure control.

[Conventional technology]

The image recorded on the photographic film is photometered to check whether the color of each pixel is a skin color, and if there is a skin color part, it is determined that this is a part of a person's face, and this part of the face is determined. A photographic printing method is known in which the printing exposure amount is controlled so that the skin tone is finished in the original skin tone (for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,581). If there is a wall or other object that reflects the skin color, it may be mistaken for a face, and in this case, correct exposure control cannot be performed.On the other hand, in most landscape images, Evans' principle is not effective. Therefore, for landscape images, color reproducibility can be improved by controlling the exposure so that the integrated light transmitted through the photographic film over the entire screen becomes gray. However, with conventional photo printing methods, it has not been possible to automatically determine whether an image is a landscape image or not. In particular, when a person appears small in a portion of the screen, it is impossible for the photo lab to determine whether the main subject is a person or a landscape.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a camera and a photo printing method that enable accurate discrimination between human images and landscape images.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a camera with means for inputting person information and landscape information, and recording means for recording the input person information or landscape information on a part of a photographic film. .

In the photo printing method of the present invention, subject information indicating the type of the main subject is recorded on the photographic film when taking a photo, the subject information is read when the photo is printed, and the printing exposure is controlled based on this information. .

[Function] In the present invention, since the type of subject can be known from the subject information recorded during Yang shadowing, for example, exposure control that emphasizes skin tone is performed for human images, and Evans's exposure control is performed for landscape images. By performing exposure control according to the principle and depending on the main subject, the main subject will be finished in the optimal color.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, which schematically shows the camera, a photographic lens 10 is composed of an optical system 10a and a lens barrel 10b that holds the optical system 10a, and is moved along an optical axis 11 manually or by an autofocus mechanism. Perform focus adjustment.

A shutter mechanism 12 is arranged behind this photographic lens 10.

This shutter mechanism 12 includes, for example, two shutter blades 1.
3.14, each shutter blade 13.1
4 are formed with cutouts 13a and 14a, respectively. These shutter blades 1314 are driven by a drive machine + JI15
When the movable pin 16 moves toward the fixed pin 17, it moves away from the fixed pin 17 and overlaps the notches 13a and 14a. This notch 13a
, 14a are overlapped, and the light passing through this is incident on the photographic film 18, and an image of the subject is recorded thereon.

A knob 22 for specifying the type of main subject is provided on the outside of the camera body (not shown). A pointer 22a is formed on the knob 22, and this pointer 22-
A mark plate 23 is arranged below a. On this mark board 23, a person mark 24 and a scenery mark 25 are drawn. Pointer 22 on any one of these subject marks
When the knob 22 is moved so that a matches, the brush 26 moves in conjunction with this. A contact Fi27 having a plurality of contacts 27a formed in a pattern is arranged so as to face the brush 26. The brush 26 is the contact 27
By touching a, a code signal corresponding to the object mark is generated. This code signal is converted into barcode data by a barcode converter 28 and sent to a barcode recording device 30 via a driver 29. The barcode recording device 30 of this embodiment includes a liquid crystal display 31 that displays a barcode, and a flash discharge tube 32 that illuminates the display.
Immediately after photographing the subject, subject information is printed in the form of a bar code between the screen 18a and the film edge. Note that this bar code may be recorded immediately before or at the same time as photographing. Furthermore, since there are many human scenes when the subject distance is short, and landscape scenes when the subject is far away, it is convenient to adjust the focus of the lens 10 in conjunction with the knob 22.

FIG. 2 shows an example of photographic film on which a bar code is recorded. Perforations 18b are perforated 7L in the photographic film 18 at regular intervals, and the sensor of the winding device detects the perforations 18b to advance one frame. On the opposite side of the perforation 18b, object information 35 represented by a barcode is recorded as a latent image, which is converted into a visible image by photographic development.

FIG. 3 shows a photo printer. The white light emitted from the light source 40 is passed through a cyan filter 41, a magenta filter 42 . After passing through a yellow filter 43, it enters a mixing box 44.

The amount of insertion of these color correction filters 41 to 43 into the optical path 46 is adjusted by the filter 11 node 45, thereby adjusting the trichromatic light components of the printing light and their intensity. The mixing box 44 is a rectangular tube whose inner surface is a mirror surface, with diffuser plates attached to both ends.

The film carrier 50 is placed at a printing position, loaded with developed photographic film 18, and illuminated with light transmitted through the mixing box 44. In order to ensure the flatness of this photographic film 18, a film mask 51 is provided above the printing position. As is well known, this film mask 51 is formed with an opening corresponding to the size of the frame, and is lifted up by a solenoid (not shown) when the photographic film 18 is transported, and presses the photographic film 18 during printing. ing.

A barcode reader 52 is placed in front of the print position, and reads the barcode 35 recorded on each frame when it is sent to the print position. This read barcode is decoded by a decoder 53 and then sent to a calculation unit 54 to perform exposure control according to the type of subject.

Also, diagonally above the printing position, a scanner 5 consisting of a lens 57 and an image area sensor 58 is installed.
9 is arranged, and the transmitted light of each point of the frame set at the printing position is photometered by three-color separation. The three-color signal from the scanner 59 is converted into a digital signal by an A/D converter 60, and then logarithmically converted by a logarithmic converter 61. The three-color density signals at each point obtained by this logarithmic transformation are sent to the calculation section 54. The printing exposure amount signal for each color calculated by the calculation section 54 is sent to the controller 55, converted into a filter set position signal, and then sent to the filter adjustment section 45.

A printing lens 65 is arranged above the printing position, and enlarges and projects the image of the set frame onto color paper 67 arranged behind a paper mask 66.

A shutter 69 is disposed between the printing lens 65 and the color paper 67, and its opening and closing are controlled by a shutter drive section 68.

FIG. 4 shows the functions of the arithmetic section. Memory section 73
The three color densities of each point (pixel) on the screen photometered by the scanner 59 are stored in . The selection unit 74 selects a contact point 74a according to the subject information output from the decoder 53.
74b, the select section 74 is switched to the contact point 14a, so fI
When determining the ttI region, the three-color density of each pixel read from the memory section 73 is sent to the skin color pixel extraction section 75, and when extracting the feature value, it is sent to the extraction section 76. Furthermore, in the case of a landscape image, three color densities are sent to the extraction section 77.

The skin color pixel extraction unit 75 determines whether each pixel is a skin color by referring to data defining a skin color range. ) can be defined as an ellipse in Cartesian coordinates,
If each pixel is included within the ellipse, it is determined that this pixel has skin color. In addition to this ellipse, the skin color range can be defined using a rectangle, a diamond, or the like.

In the Rmlm legal area determination 8, a closed area made up of skin color pixels is determined to be a head area, and the positions of pixels in the head area are determined.

The position coordinates of this head area are sent to the feature value extraction unit 76,
The feature values of the calculation formula that determines the printing exposure amount with emphasis on the finish of the face are extracted.

That is, the feature value extraction unit 76 reads out the color density of pixels in the head region, and calculates the average value from the color density of these pixels. Furthermore, the feature value extraction unit 76 also calculates the maximum value and minimum value within the screen, or the average density of a specific area such as the center or peripheral portion of the screen. The obtained feature values are sent to the calculation unit 7
9 and is substituted into a printing exposure calculation formula that emphasizes skin color. On the other hand, the feature value extraction unit 77 extracts feature values used in a printing exposure calculation formula suitable for photographic prints of landscape images. The printing exposure calculation unit 80 calculates the printing exposure amount for the landscape image from the feature values extracted by the feature value extraction unit 77. Specific examples of these printing exposure calculation formulas are described in detail in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 189456/1983.

Next, the operation of the above-mentioned embodiment will be explained. When photographing, the knob 22 is operated depending on the type of main subject to align the pointer 22a with the person mark 24 or the scenery mark 25. When this knob 22 is operated, the brush 26 slides on the contact plate 27 in conjunction with this, and generates a code signal representing the type of subject. This code signal is converted into a barcode by a barcode converter 28 and then sent to a driver 29.

When a release button (not shown) is pressed after inputting the subject information, the drive mechanism 15 operates the shutter mechanism 12 and records the subject's image on the photographic film 18. The driver 29 operates in synchronization with the operation of the shutter mechanism 12, and drives the barcode recording device 30. While the liquid crystal display 31 is displaying the barcode, the flash discharge tube 3
2 emits light and a barcode 35 representing subject information is displayed on screen 1.
Imprint around 8a.

When the photographing of one roll of photographic film 18 is completed, the photographic film 18 is taken out from the camera and submitted to a photo processing laboratory. At the photo development laboratory, the photographic film 18 is developed to convert each frame recorded as a latent image and the barcode recorded for each frame into a visible image.

The developed photographic film I8 is loaded into a film carrier 44 of a photographic printer shown in FIG. When this photographic film 18 is transported on a film carrier 50, a barcode recorded on the periphery of the frame 18a is read by a barcode reader 52. The read barcode 39 is decoded by a decoder 53 and then sent to a calculation section 54.

When the frame 18a is set at the print position, the scanner 59 measures red, green, and blue transmitted light at each point on the frame 18a. The photometric values of these three colors are A
After being subjected to /D conversion processing and logarithmic conversion processing, it is sent to the arithmetic unit 54. When the main subject is a person, the calculation unit 54 calculates the printing exposure amount for each color with emphasis on skin color reproduction.

Furthermore, when the main subject is a landscape, the printing exposure amount is calculated with emphasis on the landscape.

After calculating the printing exposure amount, the controller 55 adjusts the insertion amount of the color correction filters 41 to 43 into the optical path 46 according to the printing exposure amount. After this filter adjustment, the shutter 69 is opened for a certain period of time, and the frame 18a is printed and exposed on the color paper 67. Thereafter, each frame is sequentially photoprinted onto the color vapor 67 in the same manner.

In the embodiment described above, the subject information is recorded as a barcode, but pictures, symbols, etc. may be used instead. Figures 5 and 6 show a person mark 80. An example using a landscape mark 81 is shown.

In this case, the operator changes channels by looking at the subject mark and manually selects a printing exposure calculation formula suitable for the subject. In addition, in the case of landscapes, they change depending on the season, such as autumn leaves or fresh greenery, so it is good to record marks or characters 82 representing the seasons. The printing exposure amount calculation formula corresponding to the season is prepared as a channel.

Therefore, the operator looks at the information representing this season, selects a channel for the corresponding season, and selects a printing exposure calculation formula that makes the reds vivid in, for example, an autumn leaves scene.

Some types of photographic film do not have space to record subject information. In such a photographic film, for example, a landscape mark 81 or a month character 83 representing a season may be recorded within the screen 84.

In the embodiment described above, the position of the knob 22 is detected using a contact brush, but an optical sensor or the like may be used instead.

[Effects of the Invention] In the present invention having the above configuration, information representing the type of subject is recorded on the photographic film, and this information is used to control exposure when printing a photograph, so that colors faithful to the subject can be obtained. be able to.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a photographic camera of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of data recording on photographic film. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a photographic printer embodying the present invention. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the functions of the calculation section. FIGS. 5 to 7 are explanatory views showing examples of recording subject information, respectively. 10 ・ ・ ・ 12 ・ ・ ・ 1 8 ・ ・ ・ 22 ・ ・ 30 ・ ・ 3 81 ・ ・ ・ 82, 83 ・Photographing lens, shutter mechanism, photographic film, knobs, barcode recording device, liquid crystal display, flash discharge tube, barcode representing subject information, barcode league, scanner, color paper, person mark, Landscape mark...Seasonal information. Figure 3 Figure 7

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A camera characterized by being provided with input means for person information and landscape information, and recording means for recording the input person information or landscape information on a portion of photographic film. (2) A photographic printing method characterized by recording subject information representing the type of subject on a photographic film when taking a photograph, reading the subject information when printing a photograph, and controlling the printing exposure amount based on this information.