Image-taking system

Claim 1

An image-taking system, comprising: an image-taking device which takes an image of a subject; an image-taking-condition creating section which creates a plurality of image-taking conditions relating to light; and a background replacement device which acquires a plurality of images of the subject taken by the image-taking device under the respective plurality of image-taking conditions created by the image-taking-condition creating section, discriminates among a subject area, a background area and a boundary area in a taken image based on the acquired images, and replaces a background in the taken image with another background based on the three discriminated areas, wherein the image-taking-condition creating section comprises: a flashing device which emits a flash from the image-taking device side and illuminates the subject with the flash from the image-taking device side; and a background panel which is positioned opposite the image-taking device with the subject interposed between the image-taking device and the background panel, the background panel constituting a background to the subject, wherein the flashing device is capable of changing a polarization state of the flash, which is emitted from the flashing device and incident on the subject and the background panel, selectively among a plurality of predetermined polarization states, the background panel varies, when the background panel reflects the flash which is emitted from the flashing device and incident on the background panel, brightness of reflected light from the background panel depending on which of the plurality of predetermined polarization states is the polarization state of the flash incident on the background panel, and the image-taking-condition creating section creates the plurality of image-taking conditions corresponding to the plurality of predetermined polarization states, respectively by making the flashing device emit a plurality of flashes whose polarization states correspond to the plurality of predetermined polarization states, respectively, and wherein the background replacement device discriminates among the subject area, the background area and the boundary area based on an amount of brightness variance among the plurality of taken images which are taken by the image-taking device, and wherein the plurality of predetermined polarization states are a first predetermined polarization state, in which the flash emitted from the flashing device and incident on the subject and the background panel is polarized in a first predetermined direction, and a second predetermined polarization state, in which the flash emitted from the flashing device and incident on the subject and the background panel is polarized in a second predetermined direction, the second predetermined direction being orthogonal to the first predetermined direction, the background panel reflects the flash in the second predetermined polarization state, emitted from the flashing device and incident on the background panel, more strongly than the flash in the first predetermined polarization state, emitted from the flashing device and incident on the background panel, and the background replacement device discriminates among the subject area, the background area and the boundary area based on a difference between brightness of a first pixel, included in a first image which is taken by the image-taking device under the emission of the flash in the first predetermined polarization state by the flashing device, and brightness of a second pixel, included in a second image which is taken by the image-taking device under the emission of the flash in the second predetermined polarization state by the flashing device, a position of the first pixel in the first image being same as that of the second pixel in the second image.