Phthalocyanines are an important class of industrial dyes with potential commercial applications ranging from photovoltaics to biomedical imaging and therapeutics. We previously demonstrated the versatility of the commercially available Zinc(II) hexadecafluorophthalocyanine (ZnF16Pc) as a platform for rapidly developing functional materials for these applications and more. Because this core-platform approach to dye development is increasingly common, it is important to understand the photophysical and structural consequences of the substitution chemistry involved. We present a fundamental study of a series-of ZnF16Pc derivatives in which the aromatic fluorine atoms are progressively substituted with thioalkanes. Clear spectroscopic trends are observed as the substituents change from electron-withdrawing to electron-releasing groups. Additionally, there is evidence for significant structural distortion of the normally planar heterocycle, with important:ramifications for the photophysics. These results are also correlated to DFT calculations, which show that the orbital energies and symmetries are both important factors for explaining the excited-state dynamics.