An image capturing apparatus which keeps down an increase in the amount of processing at the time of exposure determination and at the same time enables effective utilization of the improved photometry resolution for back light detection, an which has a luminance calculation unit dividing image data output from an image capturing device into a plurality of regions and measuring the luminance of each and an exposure control unit generating and grouping a plurality of intermediate regions from the object luminances output from the luminance calculation unit, generating an exposure evaluation value from the luminances of the intermediate regions, and suitably controlling the exposure for image capture in accordance with the measured luminances, and an image capturing method used for the same.