1. An image processing apparatus comprising: an image capturing unit which captures an image of an object which includes a photograph; an edge detecting unit which detects edges existing in the image of the object captured by the image capturing unit; a weighting unit which performs weighting onto the edges detected by the edge detecting unit depending on whether or not the edges contact an outermost edge of the image of the object; and an area extracting unit which extracts an area in which the photograph exists from the image of the object based on the edges subjected to weighting by the weighting unit.