Photonic polystyrene (PS) opals with face-centered cubic structure were fabricated by convective evaporation. The influences of substrate and its physical properties, as well as deposition conditions were investigated. It is shown that the surface roughness must be less than about 30% of the bead diameter to form well- ordered opals, rendering substrates such as glass, ITO and quartz superior to thick Kapton, ordinary tape, thermal release semiconductor tape, plastic and hydrophilic plastic HHNW W (Kemafoil). Periodic stripe-like structures were found to form perpendicular to the growth direction defined by the receding meniscus of the solution front when the PS concentration is lower than 1.0 w/v%. Finally, we present the principles and results of using soft sacrificial layer deposited on quartz substrates to fabricate free standing inverse opal structures.