An image pickup apparatus and method which reduces fixed pattern noise appearing in multiple exposure shooting and which can obtain a high-quality multiple exposure image. Multiple pieces of exposure image data are obtained by exposing an image pickup device. The multiple pieces of exposure image data are subjected to image processing. The multiple pieces of image processed exposure image data are synthesized to generate synthesized exposure image data. Multiple pieces of dark image data are obtained by shielding the image pickup device from light. Each of the multiple pieces of dark image data is subjected to image processing equivalent to image processing performed on a corresponding one of the multiple pieces of exposure image data. The multiple pieces of image processed dark image data that are synthesized to generate synthesized dark image data. The synthesized exposure image data is corrected on the basis of the synthesized dark image data.