We are concerned with the modification of liquid crystalline and polar order in chiral smectic C liquids by illumination. In particular we show that spatial non-uniformity of order and electric polarization due to light absorption and also dynamics can be complex. The variation of polarization with temperature, while illuminated, is modified from that assuming uniformity. The dynamics is shown to depend on propagating fronts of photoconversion penetrating the sample. Apparent changes of ferroelectric polarization with illumination will be shown to be underestimated due to non-uniformity.