A digital still camera has a CCD image sensor, which includes an active pixel area for image pickup of an image to produce image data. A black pixel area is disposed outside the active pixel area, and produces black pixel data. The image pickup apparatus includes an amplifier for adjusting white balance of the image data. A smear detection unit detects a smeared portion of a smear phenomenon in the image according to the black pixel data. A tone correction unit reduces chroma of the image in a predetermined hue area according to a smear level of the smear phenomenon determined from the black pixel data, to carry out color correction of the smeared portion for the image data after adjusting the white balance.