A photoacoustic apparatus includes a light source, a probe including a reception element that receives a photoacoustic wave generated by a subject in response to being illuminated with light and output a time-series reception signal, a signal data acquisition unit that generates reception signal data based on the time-series reception signal and stores the resultant data, a light fluence acquisition unit that acquires a light fluence at a position of interest in the subject, and an information acquisition unit that acquires subject information based on the stored reception signal data, wherein in a case where the light fluence at the position of interest is smaller than a threshold value, the signal data acquisition unit reduces the amount of data for a part of the time-series reception signal that corresponds to the position of interest.
