1. A method of determining a characteristic of a face within a scene captured in a digital image, comprising: building a first model from a plurality of images including different individual faces, each acquired independently of directional lighting variations, said model comprising a mean, shape vector (s), a mean texture vector (t), and a first texture vector (b t ) for each face; building respective second models from respective sets of images, each set acquired for a given individual with varying directional lighting, said respective second models comprising said mean shape vector (s) and respective second texture vectors (g) for said images; projecting said second texture vectors (g) onto the subspace spanned by the first model to provide a filtered texture vector (g filt )for each image of said sets of images; subtracting said filtered texture vector (g filt ) from said second texture vectors (g) to provide a residual texture vector (g res ) for each image of said sets of images; building a second model orthogonal to said first model for said sets of images based on a mean of said residual texture vectors (g res ), said second model including a texture vector (bg) for each image; fusing said first and second texture (b t , b g ) vectors for each image to provide a fused texture model (t fused ); acquiring a digital image including a face within a scene; determining an initial location of the face in the scene; applying said fused model to said initial location to obtain a active-appearance based fit of said fused model to said face; based on the obtained fit of the fused model to said face in the scene, determining at least one characteristic of the face; and electronically storing, transmitting, applying a face recognition program to, editing, or displaying the face including the determined characteristic, or combinations thereof.