We determine the anisotropy of the mobility of photoexcited charge carriers in single crystals of KNbO 3 and BaTiO 3 by means of a purely optical method. In orthorhombic KNbO 3 the mobility anisotropy is measured for both electrons and holes giving m a ͞m c 1.05 6 0.06, m b ͞m c 2.9 6 0.3 for holes and m a ͞m c 1.15 6 0.09, m b ͞m c 1.9 6 0.2 for electrons. In BaTiO 3 we find for holes m a ͞m c 19.6 6 0.6. Our experiment also demonstrates that the acoustic phonon contribution to the dielectric permittivity is substantially different for spatially modulated electric fields as compared to the homogeneous case.