This paper highlights the decisive advantages offered by concurrent spatial and spectral analysis (SSA) of photonic components to acquire an insightful assessment of their properties. Herein, two distinct procedures are proposed and illustrated with the aid of simulations and experimental data by considering two widely researched photonic compomemts; ring resonators (RRs) and photonic crystals (PhCs). As shown here, these procedures enable a rapid and straightforward access to all RR parameters and also permit a direct access to the propagation properties as well as the spatial and spectral characteristics of backscattering in "real PhCs"