It is established that the existence of a vapor depression and its geometry and the resulting melt pool morphology and dynamic significantly impact the nature and quality of the laser melting process of metals [1]. However, predicting, simulating, or monitoring this process zone morphology remains challenging due to its emergence from a complex interaction of multiple process parameters and its transient nature. Therefore, a novel approach to process zone characterization can significantly enhance the understanding of the process and its dependence on individual parameters. Fortunately, recent research has shown a strong connection between the process zone morphology and the spatial laser reflection distribution [2, 3]. Therefore, this work investigates and characterizes directional reflection patterns of the laser resulting from different combinations of scan speed, laser power, and laser spot size during laser melting of AISI 316L. For this, a camera monitors the directional distribution of reflected laser radiation at high resolution as it interacts with a grey hemisphere, encompassing the process zone during bare plate experiments. It was found that the resulting reflection patterns can be clustered in relation to their process parameters because individual reflection feature changes are linked to individual parameter changes. Furthermore, the connections between these reflection features and the geometric features responsible for the process zone are discussed. These results pose great potential to enhance process understanding because they provide the foundation to map specific process parameter combinations to their resulting process zone morphologies via their directional reflection behavior. Additionally, this link facilitates the validation of process zone simulation by means of raytracing.