What is Face Detection doing in digital camera?

To put it in more general explanation, face detection is a technology that the digital camera is able to detect human faces in a frame.

It is known that the digital camera will use an algorithm to detect faces and show a preview on the LCD screen. When you press the shutter button halfway down, the digital camera will pin-point the faces in the frame with a rectangle. It calculates the distance of the subject with the camera and adjusts the flash. What you will get then is photograph with more natural looking people. So, you are free from all the overexposed or dark pictures.

However, you shouldn't rely entirely on face detection in digital camera because you still need good lighting and keep an optimal distance with your subject. Please don't blame the technology that you fail to capture a picture that is out of your camera zoom and terrible lighting.

As helpful as the face detection technology may sound, you need to know that sometime it is build in as default in digital camera and sometime it is selectable by the user. And the number of faces a digital face detection camera can detect varies from manufacturer to the cost of the digital camera.

Still, if you are a beginner in photography and want to have fun with it, a digital face detection camera is what you need.

Have Fun in Photography,

Michael Wong. :-)