In this paper, the photonic control of free-floating flexible parabolic shells using photostrictive actuators is investigated. The parabolic shell of revolution is considered to be one of the most difficult geometries among all shell and non-shell structures. Because of this, an approximate way to estimate the dynamic behavior and light-induced control forces for a photostrictive coupled parabolic shell is presented. On the basis of the approximate spherical model, the effects of actuator locations as well as membrane and bending components on the control action are analyzed. The analysis results presented show that the control forces are location dependent. It is also shown that the membrane control action is much more significant than the bending control action. The validation of the approximate model is done by comparing the light-induced control forces of the photostrictive coupled shells obtained using the approximate equivalent spherical shell model and those obtained using the parabolic shell model. From the comparison, it can be concluded that there is only a slight difference between a spherical shell and a parabola for a surface with a focal length to diameter ratio of 1.00 or larger.