A component mounting apparatus, an illuminating apparatus used in imaging in the component mounting apparatus and an illuminating method are provided which can support various recognition objects and can meet the requirement of downsizing by reducing the occupied space. In the component mounting apparatus which performs an operation for mounting a component on a board (3), when illumination light is irradiated to the board (3) at the time of imaging with a board recognition camera (12), and when the illumination light is irradiated from a light emitting panel (15) which is formed by laminating a light source portion (13) and a color liquid crystal panel (14) and in which a plurality of light emitting portions whose light emission states can be individually changed are orderly arranged, the irradiation range of the illumination light which is irradiated from the respective light emitting portions are made to be changed on the basis of the imaging object. Therefore, while the imaging can be made on conditions suitably corresponding to various recognition objects, the requirement of downsizing can be met by reducing the occupied space of an illuminating portion (20).