The invention discloses a subject information obtaining apparatus and a subject information obtaining method. The subject information obtaining apparatus includes a plurality of acoustic wave detection elements (e1, e2, e3), each of which detects a photoacoustic wave generated when a subject (30) is irradiated with light and outputs a detection signal, initial-sound-pressure obtaining means (42) that obtains an initial sound pressure in a region of interest (33) in the subject on the basis of the detection signals, light-intensity obtaining means (43) that obtains a corrected light intensity in the region of interest on the basis of weighting coefficients based on sensitivity distributions of the acoustic wave detection elements and a light intensity of the light with which the region of interest is irradiated, and optical-characteristic-value obtaining means (44) that obtains an optical characteristic value in the region of interest on the basis of the initial sound pressure and the corrected light intensity.