The paper discusses photoinduced microrelief formation in a film of an azopolymer. A theoretical study of the effect of laser beam polarization on the balance of optical forces acting under the direct action of paraxial Gaussian beams on the irradiated substance was made. We show that taking into account the gradient and scattering components of the force does not allow us to correctly describe the shape of the microasperities obtained on a carbazole-containing azopolymer. An approximation function is presented that describes the dependence of the microasperities' shapes on the non-gradient component of the optical force of laser radiation in the absence and presence of a vortex phase. A comparative analysis of the approximation results and experimentally obtained microreliefs was carried out.