The investigation of optical transitions in strained In0.045Ga0.955As/GaAs multiple quantum wells is presented. The structures were grown by molecular beam epitaxy for different GaAs barrier thickness (1, 3, 5 and 9 monolayers) and for different numbers of wells (3 and 4). The photoreflectance spectra of these samples have been measured at liquid nitrogen temperature. The origin of various spectral features have been assigned by using the results of the envelope function calculation and taking into account the effects of strain and exciton binding energy. The quantum wells are type I for the electron-heavy hole system and type II for the electron-light hole system, with the electrons and heavy holes confined in the InxGa1-xAs layers and the light holes in the GaAs barrier regions. The influence of changes of barrier thickness on the confined transitions including parity-forbidden and indirect in the real space light hole ones has been studied. The splitting of the fundamental heavy hole state has been derived.