Shooting 3:1 Lighting Ratio by the students I taught in Kona Hawaii

© Fred Tesone 2017

These are the photos by the students in School of Photography 1 at the Kona, Hawaii Campus.

The students shot the 3:1 Lighting ratio and then after doing the assignment I saw they needed to push for more variety. So the next assignment was to turn in 10 different poses of a person all doing 3:1 Lighting Ratio.

Lighting setup 2 assignment for my class: 3:1 Lighting Ratio

Photo by: Maile Powell

The first assignment I gave the students this week with one light gave us wonderful Rembrandt lighting. The downside to this type of lighting is sometimes you need to fill in those shadows.

The second assignment for the students in my photo class this week is 3:1 Lighting Ratio.

Nikon D4, Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 100, ƒ/5, 1/200

Here is the setup

Assignment Description:
3:1 lighting ratio.  This photo is classic lighting.

Items:

Octobox closest to subject
This light is your main light. Get a light reading with just this first. The light should be 45 degrees off the axis of the camera and 45 degrees above the subjects eyes.

Subject
Your subject should have the main light lighting only part of the face and the shadows should be just a little to show the 3:1 ratio.

(D)SLR
Choose the lowest ISO.  Ideally on full-frame camera a lens close to 85mm and on cropped sensor a 50mm. Set your shutter speed to the sync speed for your camera [in your camera manual] or slower. My camera was 1/250 but I shot at a slower speed of 1/200.

Octobox behind the camera
This is your fill light and get just a reading of this 2nd.  Be sure it is 1/2 the power (1 f/stop less) than the main light. After this is done get a 3rd light reading of both lights which will be the setting for the camera. It can be level with the eyes, but you may have to move up with glasses to avoid glare.

First set the main light and here is what that will look like:

Due to using such a large soft box the shadows are not as severe as in our first assignment using the grid light. Some of the light is bouncing off a white wall a few feet to the left of the model or right of the camera position.

Turning the main light off after finding out your setting you need to take a reading and get the fill light to 1 stop less than the main light. The main light was ƒ/4 so the fill light should read ƒ/2.8.

This is what it looks like without the main light on. You can see a little darker but no real shaping of the face as the main light which is 45º to the side.

When you combine them you get the first photo of the model we started with.

The main light is twice as bright as the fill light. So to show this using math we would say the main light has value of 2 and the fill light has the value of 1.

Where both the main and fill light fall on the face is getting the combined value of the 2 + 1 = 3. However in the shadows only the fill light is hitting those and therefore the value is only 1.

So the bright areas get 3 and the shadows 1 giving you a 3:1 lighting ratio.

Now I showed the students how they can add a background light. I put a blue gel over it to show them they can also color the background.

Student's 1:3 Lighting Ratio results

© 2015 Stephanie Leilani

These are the results from the students assignment where they were to create a 1:3 lighting ratio on the subjects. They could add background color or just white. They could also have fun, but they had to demonstrate the 1:3 lighting setup.

Assignment Description:
1:3 lighting ratio.  This photo is classic lighting.

Items:

Softbox
This light is your main light. Get a light reading with just this first. The light should be 45 degrees off the axis of the camera and 45 degrees above the subjects eyes.

Subject
Your subject should have the main light lighting only part of the face and the shadows should be just a little to show the 1:3 ratio.

White backdrop
Keep the subject a few feet from the background and do not use more lights to light it.

(D)SLR
Choose the lowest ISO.  Use a portrait lens 50mm if you don't have full frame camera can work.  No more than 100mm.

Octobox
This is your fill light and get just a reading of this 2nd.  Be sure it is 1/2 the power (1 f/stop less) than the main light. After this is done get a 3rd light reading of both lights which will be the setting for the camera. It can be level with the eyes, but you may have to move up with glasses to avoid glare.

© 2015 Benjamin Marsden

To see all the photos just look at this slide show.

Why Learn Ratio Lighting?

First of all there are times you need to be sure your photos can be reproduced properly. The most used photo I know of in publications is the head shot.

There are some pretty cool lighting setups you can use, but if you not aware of how this will affect the photo in print then your client will be sorely disappointed with your photos.

Take this first photo where I am lighting the person with one light on a grid. This is a classic Rembrandt Lighting that gives you a nice triangle on a the cheek.

All the photos here were taken during a class I taught in Hawaii on lighting.

You can do this assignment yourself to understand how to understand ratio lighting. You need to first start with one light and then add other lights. Use this lighting diagram and the instructions below to duplicate this with your camera and off camera flash.

Description:
Rembrandt portrait using one grid light

Items:

• Monobloc with 10 or 20 degree grid
• You may use any power setting you choose.  Be sure skin tone is properly exposed and correct white balance.
• White backdrop
• You may use a black background as well.  No other lights to be used in this assignment.
• Woman
• Please get the best possible expression.  You need to see a triangle on their cheek.  Be sure the triangle includes lighting their eye.
• (D)SLR
• Choose the lowest ISO setting for your camera.  Use a portrait lens 85mm - 100mm or if you don't have full frame then 50mm will be OK.

The first place that the above photo becomes a problem is with your newspaper. Especially when it runs in black and white. You see for the most part everything without light on it in the subject will be black in newspaper print.

So as to still get the nice shape that takes place with an off camera flash you need to add a fill light to help soften those harsh shadows so you can still see detail.

To get the second photo here you need to use the lighting diagram below and follow the instructions. Go ahead and shoot your subject with your camera and two lights.

Description:
1:3 lighting ratio.  This photo is classic lighting.

Items:

• Woman
• Your subject should have the main light lighting only part of the face and the shadows should be just a little to show the 1:3 ratio.
• (D)SLR
• Choose the lowest ISO.  Use a portrait lens 50mm if you don't have full frame camera can work.  No more than 100mm.
• Octobox
• This is your fill light and get just a reading of this 2nd.  Be sure it is 1/2 the power (1 f/stop less) than the main light. After this is done get a 3rd light reading of both lights which will be the setting for the camera. It can be level with the eyes, but you may have to move up with glasses to avoid glare.
• Softbox
• This light is your main light. Get a light reading with just this first. The light should be 45 degrees off the axis of the camera and 45 degrees above the subjects eyes.
• White backdrop
• Keep the subject a few feet from the background and do not use more lights to light it.

How to figure the Ratio

You need to change your f/stops into ratios.  What I do is first understand that your main light is putting out twice the light as your fill.  You would think that this means you have a 2:1 ratio, but this isn't the case.

The reason is you must figure not by what each light is putting out, but how much light is hitting the subject. 

Everywhere the main light is hitting so to is your fill light from the camera's angle. You then need to add the main light and the fill for all those places which is adding 2 + 1 = 3. The shadow is only being lighted by the fill so no need for addition or subtraction.

On the subject the brightest areas being lighted by the main and fill get 3 times the light as compared to the shadows getting lighted by just the fill which we say is 1 amount of light.

This is what we call the 3:1 lighting ratio and very printable in a newspaper.

Adding a hair light

Go ahead and then shoot this third shot and add a hair light. Use the diagram below and play with the exposure of the hair light till you get something you like.

Description:
1:3 lighting ratio.  This photo is classic lighting with hair light.

Items:

• Woman
• Your subject should have the main light lighting only part of the face and the shadows should be just a little to show the 1:3 ratio.
• Monobloc with grid on boom
• With dark hair start at same f/stop as main up to about 1 or 2 stops more.  With bald or light hair be careful using hair light. Sometimes better to not use one.
• (D)SLR
• Choose the lowest ISO.  Use a portrait lens 50mm if you don't have full frame camera can work.  No more than 100mm.
• Octobox
• This is your fill light and get just a reading of this 2nd.  Be sure it is 1/2 the power (1 f/stop less) than the main light. After this is done get a 3rd light reading of both lights which will be the setting for the camera. It can be level with the eyes, but you may have to move up with glasses to avoid glare.
• Softbox
• This light is your main light. Get a light reading with just this first. The light should be 45 degrees off the axis of the camera and 45 degrees above the subjects eyes.
• White backdrop
• Keep the subject a few feet from the background and do not use more lights to light it.

Background Light

You can add color to your background by just putting a colored gel over a light and pointing it to the background. You need to be sure your other lights are not lighting the background. For these photos here below we used the first lighting setup with one light with a grid and then added the background light.

Using a white background be sure your value on the background from the background light is -2 stops as compared to the main light. This will give you the same color as your gel.  If you want a darker color then even less light. If you prefer a lighting color add more light.

Here is a photo of some of the students having fun with their assignments in Kona, Hawaii.