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Face recognition

I used to think face recognition was a gimmick but no longer hold that opinion.

I bought a Canon A570IS as a replacement for my daughter's A510. I recently learned, to my surprise, that she only uses scene modes. And yet she consistently gets well exposed and composed photos with the A510. Since the A570 is a newer version of the same model, why mess with a good thing?!

Anyway, when looking at some of the new features, I became absolutely fascinated when I saw how Face Recognition (FR) works.

Face recognition follows the eyes

I was taking photos of a four-month old child and the focus box followed every place her eyes moved. When full face, the FR focus square was large; it reduced in size when she moved her head to the side and only a small portion of one eye showed. The box followed her eyes whenever she changed the position of her head, no matter how fast or slow. The FD focus box disappeared completely if she turned her head so her eyes didn't show at all; then the regular focus indicators appeared.

I now realize face recognition can be quite effective photographing people, especially when shooting in difficult situations such as low light or when a person is backlit. What's interesting is that the FR not only focuses on faces, but exposes for them too. As a result, flash photos of people are often much better exposed than when not using FD.

Face detection, while not a must have feature, is a welcome technology particularly for those who don't want to fuss with camera settings.

Important note: Face detection may be associated with a multi-point autofocus mode, such as Canon's AiAF. When a face is not detected in a scene, the camera will revert to the autofocus mode. Many have found these types of autofocus modes to be unreliable and use single area focus mode instead. They only switch to FD mode when photographing people.

Category: Cool Stuff (Archive)