The photodielectric effects of rare earth elements Er, Eu, and Ho doped Na1/2Bi1/2TiO3 (NBT) ceramics are investigated. The dependence of light intensity and irradiation time on the photodielectric effects were clarified, and the thermal-induced and photo-induced changes in permittivity are distinguished. At 1 kHz, the Δεr/εdark (Δεr = εphoto-εdark) of NBT-Er/Eu and NBT-Er/Ho are 2.57 % and 2.08 %, respectively. Furthermore, poling and quenching treatments are employed to improve the photodielectric effect of NBT-Er/Ho ceramics. At 1 kHz, the Δεr/εdark of poled and quenched NBT-Er/Ho increase to 5.22 % and 2.71 %, respectively. The increase of Δεr/εdark of poled sample is resulted from the lattice distortion of the ceramics while the increase of Δεr/εdark of quenched sample is due to the increase in oxygen vacancies. This work is conducive to understand the unconventional optical and dielectric effects in ferroelectric ceramics.