Complex oxide materials are an intense and exciting research area of condensed matter physics with their coupling between lattice, charge, and spin. Especially, nanoscale periodic polar configurations in ferroic oxides called ferroelectric domains exhibit novel phenomena leading to an intense flurry of research interests. However, as studies of functional responses to external stimuli have mainly focused on electric and mechanical responses, a new and effective approach to manipulate these polar configurations is on demand. In this presentation, I will discuss our efforts to investigate interaction of light with nanoscale domains and ferroelastic domain walls examined by in-situ and time-resolved x-ray diffraction experiments. By tracking temporal evolution of x-ray domain diffuse scattering, we have found that structural transformation of ferroic domains is optically induced and exhibits nonthermal characteristics. I will also present theoretical considerations to investigate the underlying physics of the photoinduced transformation.