A photographing apparatus and a method for controlling target tracking are provided. The photographing apparatus includes a target extractor for extracting target information in a present frame based on the difference between a pixel value of one pixel among previous pixels constituting the target of the previous frame in an area adjacent to the present pixel constituting the present frame and a pixel value of the present pixel, and a tracking controller for controlling automatic tracking for the target based on the target information. Accordingly, the target can be extracted more precisely.