The action of many agents causing the mortality of overstory trees may potentially induce the formation of an aggregated distribution of canopy gaps. In this study we tested the hypothesis that natural stand dynamics generates an aggregated pattern of canopy openness in old-growth forests formed by Fagus sylvatica L., Abies alba Mill. and Picea abies (L.) H. Karst. We compared canopy openness and its spatial heterogeneity in five stands in the Western Carpathians (Central Europe) and three stands in the Dinaric Mountains (Southeast Europe). The stands were between 4.48 and 9.24 ha in size. In each stand we took hemispheric photographs in a regular 20 × 20 m grid in the leafless period to minimize coverage by the understory. Tree species and the dbh of live trees of dbh ≥7 cm were recorded on circular plots with a radius of 7 m centered at the grid points. At the stage of picture processing, understory trees of dbh <25 cm and polar coordinates recorded during field measurements were removed from the pictures, and for every grid point the local canopy openness of the overstory layer was determined in the sky region defined by a zenith angle of 15°. We characterized the spatial pattern of canopy openness by using variograms and Moran’s I coefficients and tested the spatial dependence in the distribution patterns of grid points characterized by different levels of canopy openness. Depending on the stand, mean canopy openness varied between 17.5 and 41.0%, with the greatest values recorded in the Carpathian stands with a considerable proportion of Norway spruce and a more severe disturbance regime. Relationships between canopy openness and the overall number, basal area or volume of trees forming the overstory were strongly modified by variation in the density and species percentage in the mid-canopy zone. In all the stands small-scale variation determined for inter-point distances of 20 m accounted for the majority of the total variation in canopy heterogeneity and ranged between 61 and 100%. We found a tendency to form random patterns of canopy openness in the Dinaric stands, which were characterized by a greater basal area and probably also lower frequency of severe disturbances, and aggregated patterns in the Carpathian stands, which were characterized by a smaller basal area driven by more severe disturbances. The revealed spatial dependence in canopy openness may suggest that in the studied ecosystem canopy gaps are not only a legacy of the mortality of canopy trees but also self-organizing structural elements which, under a more severe disturbance regime, can affect the mortality rate in their neighbourhood. Nonetheless, the percentage of spatially structured variability in canopy openness observable at scales larger than the grid spacing used in our study was insignificant (83% on average). The close-to-random pattern of canopy heterogeneity may weaken the spatio-temporal synchronization of the juvenile growth, maturation and senescence of neighbouring trees and counteract the formation of coarse-grained patch mosaics.