An apparatus and method to control the focusing of a photographing device, in which a light source portion is removed from an image, is provided. The focusing of the photographing device is controlled according to whether the image is in a high- or low-illuminance state. The apparatus includes a luminance detection unit detecting respective luminance values of pixels included in an image; a filter unit outputting values corresponding to the detected luminance values; a threshold calculation unit counting a number of pixels having luminance values greater than a predetermined value among the luminance values of the pixels included in the image and calculating a threshold value using a ratio of the counted number of pixels to a total number of pixels included in the image; and a control unit controlling a position of a lens using output values greater than the calculated threshold value among the output values.