A large set of free-base and transition-metal 5,10,15,20-tetraphenyl-substituted chlorins, bacteriochlorins, and isobacteriochlorins and their pyrrole-modified analogues were investigated by combined UV-visible spectroscopy, magnetic circular dichroism (MCD), density functional theory (DFT), and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) approaches and their spectral characteristics were compared to those of the parent compounds, free-base tetraphenylporphyrin 1H(2) and chlorin 2H(2). It was shown that the nature of the pyrroline substituents in the chlorin derivatives dictates their specific UV-vis and MCD spectroscopic signatures. In all hydroporphyrin-like cases, MCD spectroscopy suggests that the Delta HOMO is smaller than the Delta LUMO for the macrocycle-centered frontier molecular orbitals. DFT and TDDFT calculations were able to explain the large broadening of the UV-vis and MCD spectra of the chlorin diones and their derivatives compared to the other hydroporphyrins and hydroporphyrin analogues. This study contributes to the further understanding of the electronic effects of replacing a pyrrole in porphyrins by pyrrolines or other five-membered heterocycles (oxazoles and imidazoles).