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 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 a value of integrated light intensity in the region of interest on the basis of the obtained initial sound pressure, and obtains an optical characteristic value in the region of interest using the obtained initial sound pressure and the value of the integrated light intensity.
