What is a Lighting Ratio?

This tutorial is for studio photography. You may have wondered what a lighting ratio means.

The lighting ratio is simply a ration of the key and fill lights used to light a subject. For example:

• 1:1 ratio - produces soft, even lighting when the key and fill lights are exactly the same.


• 2:1 ratio - gives lighting usually used for shooting portraits. The key light is twice as bright as the fill light, 1 stop difference.


• 4:1 ratio - more contrast result. There is a 2 stops difference between the key and fill lights.


• 8:1 ratio - very contrast lighting. It is a 3 stop difference between the key and fill lights.

In other words the higher the ratio, the higher the contrast.

One more tip, position your lights 45 degrees from the camera. The greater the angle, the greater the contrast.

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