A subject information obtaining apparatus sets certain sensitive regions corresponding to a plurality of acoustic wave detection elements on the basis of a sensitivity distribution of the plurality of acoustic wave detection elements, obtains, using an initial sound pressure obtaining unit, initial sound pressure in a region of interest without using a detection signal corresponding to the region of interest obtained by an acoustic wave detection element whose certain sensitive region does not include the region of interest, obtains, using a light intensity obtaining unit, a value of integrated light intensity in the region of interest on the basis of detection signals used by the initial sound pressure obtaining unit, and obtains an optical characteristic value in the region of interest using the initial sound pressure obtained by the initial sound pressure obtaining unit and the value of the integrated light intensity obtained by the light intensity obtaining unit.
