The soil drought is one of key factors limiting photosynthesis in northwest areas of China. In order to understand the influence of drought stress on crop, the light response curves and several parameters of photosynthesis of sunflower are measured with Li-6400 Portable Photosynthesis System under three soil moisture grades: Arid soil, suitable soil moisture and wetter soil moisture (corresponding soil water contents are 40%-54.9%, 55%-69.9% and 70%-90%, respectively) in different development stages (two pairs of leaves-bud stage, bud stage-flowering stage, flowering stage-maturity stage). Results show that all coefficients of light response curve equations fitted using rectangular hyperbola model are above 0.99, meaning good compatibility between the model and the response process of photosynthesis of sunflower to light. The light response curves of sunflower growing under different soil moisture in different development stages show similar trends, the net photosynthetic rate (Pn) increases with photosynthetic active radiation rapidly at first and then slowly. For different development stages, changes of light response curves show a similar regulation with reduced soil moisture, but Pn of sunflower under wetter soil moisture is greater than that under suitable soil moisture and drought stress at the same photosynthetic active radiation, and differences are statistically significant with the photosynthetic active radiation increasing. Influences of soil moisture on the maximum net photosynthetic rate (Pmax) and apparent quantum efficiency are not synchronous. Pmax increases with soil moisture and apparent quantum efficiency under the condition of water stress in maximum. In the entire growth period of sunflower in the Hetao Irrigation District, light compensation point and light saturation point are 30.51-107.98 μmol·m-2·s-1 and 2260.8-3658.9 μmol·m-2·s-1, respectively. It shows that sunflower with high solar energy utilization efficiency is the typical sun plants, and is particularly fond of light. The effect of soil moisture content in light compensation point and light saturation point is different. The light saturation point increases with soil moisture, while light compensation point is the opposite. According to the variation of light compensation point and light saturation point, sunflower under suitable soil moisture not only expands the scope of the use of light but also is conducive to the accumulation of dry matter, sunflower under drought stress narrows the range of available light. The dark respiration rate (Rd) decreases gradually with plant growth, and decreases under drought stress in different development stages, which is conducive to reduce the influence of drought stress on dry matter accumulation of crops.