What Is Camera Face Detection?

The face-detection feature on a point and shoot digital camera isn't designed to recognize animal faces.

If you have recently purchased a camera, you may have noticed that it has the ability to zero in on a person in the frame. This is a new feature called face-detection technology, designed to make getting good photographs easier.

The Face-Detection Feature

Face detection is a hardware function that allows the camera to recognize a face in the image, focus on that face and then adjust the shooting settings and flash to produce the best picture. The person must be facing the camera's lens for the function to work properly.

How Face Detection Works

The hardware instructs the camera's image sensor to look for the oval shape of a face. The program then scans the oval looking for eyes, a nose and a mouth.

If your subject meets the specifications of that rough outline, the camera highlights that portion of the viewfinder with a small box and then adjusts to give that area of the picture the best lighting conditions.

You cannot turn off the face-detection function in most cameras.

Cameras That Use Face Detection

All newer models of digital point and shoot cameras use face-detection technology. Many digital SLR cameras do not, although their autofocus areas react the same way when focusing the frame.

References

• Digicam Help: Face recognition mode
• Popular Mechanics: Digital Camera Face Recognition: How It Works