In a slide show, image displaying method and apparatus are provided that can automatically set a display effect suitable for a picture on the basis of information proper to individual pictures. After at least one image data is obtained, in executing a slide show of this image, characteristic areas such as faces in the image are detected, and a display effect is selected from a plurality of predetermined display effects on the basis of the number and/or size of the characteristic areas. The image is displayed while being changed in time series on the basis of this selected display effect.