Recent technological advances seem to be driving towards making consumer-based photography more of a photographer-less, automated affair. I’m not talking about the likes of autofocus or scene-based metering (although I’m sure they both have their naysayers) that still leave the decision of what to have in focus and what remains in the frame up to the photographer.

The two technologies I’m writing about today are supposed to help the photographer by making some of the decisions for him or her by choosing what to focus on and when to capture the scene. These two technologies are face detection and smile detection.

The purpose of face detection is for a camera to be able to find and automatically bring focus to faces within the framed scene. In a group shot, this could mean detecting and ensuring multiple faces are in focus.

Smile detection or Smile Shutter as Sony likes to call it, takes facial detection a step further and not only picks up on smiling subjects, but also takes a photo automatically too meaning all that’s left for the photographer is to act as support mechanism for the camera.

I can see where these technologies are targeted and they’re aimed squarely at the point and shoot non-photographer who doesn’t want to think about such technicalities as making sure people’s faces are in focus when taking their snapshots. This may be all well and good, but these features also bring their own set of headaches.

For example, Sony’s Smile Shutter will currently only work with a single subject. Using it for group shots could leave you with photos with half the group smiling as the first smile detected would trigger the shutter release rather than waiting for the entire group to bear their grins. For subjects that don’t necessarily beam when they’re smiling, the detection mechanism can be set to low, medium or high. How this actually translates into the real world will probably take some trial and error.

Face detection will probably do the job that asked of it in most group photos where subjects are lined up alongside each other so the depth of focus required is relatively restricted. Bring in less formal arrangements or more than a dozen faces and your camera could struggle to keep everyone in focus.

From my point of view, as an amateur photographer, neither of these technologies really interest me, but that doesn’t mean I consider them redundant. I’m just wondering where this particular technology train is stopping at next. Perhaps automatic digital zooming to automatically crop out the empty space that floats above many group photos?