To automatically and surely detect the presence/absence of a figure without providing a special sensor by discriminating the presence/absence of the figure from characteristic values showing the maximum and minimum values of data in the effective area of photographing picture.

An image processing circuit finds characteristic values Mx1-Mx5 showing the maximum values of data and characteristics values Mn1-Mn5 showing the minimum values of data in prescribed rectangular areas A1-A5 of shading corrected B, G and R digital photographic images. Then, differences ΔM1-ΔM5 of both the characteristic values are compared with a predetermined value CP for each of rectangular areas A1-A5. As a result, when the difference is larger than the value CP, the presence of the figure is judged and when the difference is smaller than the value CP, the absence of the figure is judged. When the presence of the figure is judged in the rectangular areas more than a prescribed number, the presence of the figure is discriminated. It is preferable that the predetermined value CP is a value corresponding to a logarithmic value of the luminance higher than 1.5.