1. A method of determining a characteristic of a face or certain other object within a scene captured in a digital image, comprising: (a) acquiring a digital image including a face or certain other object within a scene; (b) applying a linear texture model that is constructed based on a training data set and that comprises a class of objects including a first subset of model components that exhibit a dependency on directional lighting variations and a second subset of model components which are independent of directional lighting variations but which are dependent on at least one other characteristic of said face or certain other object; (c) determining an initial location of the face or certain other object in the scene; (d) adjusting values of the subset of model components that exhibit a dependency on directional lighting variations and at least one other of the model components of said linear texture model to obtain a desired fit between the model and said face or certain other object; (e) based on the value of said at least one other model component, determining at least one characteristic of the face or certain other object; and (f) displaying, transmitting, storing, applying face or other object recognition to, or editing, a corrected or otherwise processed version of the digital image, a value corresponding to the at least one characteristic or other data generated based on the determining, or combinations thereof.