To detect a face or faces of one or more persons in an image in order to improve the quality of the image captured by adding a value to an image capturing processing.

A method of determining the presence of a face from image data compares a face-shaped model with probability of a face in order to search for areas of faces becoming one or more candidates by previously screening image data by a first algorithm, and confirms the presence of the faces in the areas by searching for the face areas becoming the respective candidates by executing a second algorithm to the face areas becoming the candidates by pattern matching. By using the combination of the first and second algorithms, performance is enhanced in terms of a detection level as compared with the case where the first and second algorithms are individually used. A digital camera includes a memory for storing algorithms, and an electronic processing part for processing image data by an algorithm for determining the presence of one or more faces in a scene. Face data is used for control of an exposure parameter for image capturing or generation of image data processed by relating color balance to the presence of faces, or stored on a storage medium along with the image data.