We have investigated the surface reflection properties of a layer‐by‐layer photonic crystal. By using a Fabry–Perot resonant cavity analogy along with the reflection‐phase information of the photonic crystal, we predicted defect frequencies of planar defect structures. Our predictions were in good agreement with the measured defect frequencies. Our simple model can also predict and explain double defect formation within the photonic band gap. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.