We're going to teach you today about lighting ratios.
The lesson is about to start, but you better jump over really quick to theslantedlens.com
and signup to win this Tamron 85 millimeter 1.8 lens.
Get over there.
[music]
Hi, this is Jay P. Morgan.
Today on The Slanted Lens, we are going to look at lighting ratios.
We've got Lauryn Parkinson here with us, she's fabulous, she's beautiful, and we're gonna
do some shots of her face in different ratios of lighting, what does that all mean?
A one to one ratio just simply means that the highlight and the shadow are equally exposed.
So, a one to one ratio is pretty much flat.
There is no shadow with a one to one ratio.
A two to one ratio simply means that your highlight side is one stop brighter than your
shadow side.
Because photography is done in divisions of two, when you go up one stop it goes from
two to one to four to one.
A four to one ratio means that the shadow side is two stops darker than the highlight
side.
An eight to one ratio is that your highlight side is three stops brighter than your shadow
side.
Why do we need to know that?
What does that mean?
It's so much quicker to work when you're using a light meter, and I use the Illuminati meters
just because it's just simple because I can put two or three of them up and very quickly
I can move from one ratio to the next by looking at the different meters in the set.
Also, they're extremely cheap.
And I know I've read on the channel complains that $300 is not cheap, but compared to an
$1,800 or $1,500 or a $3,000 light meter, color meter, $300 is very cheap.
So let's talk about the proper way to use a light meter, in our case, two light meters
with Illuminati.
We're going to place one meter on the highlight, or the key light side of the image.
I'm going to get that as close as I can to the subject matter, so it's just out of the
frame and I'm going to turn it just slightly towards the key light.
Because I want it to just primarily read the light that's going to fall on the subject
from the key light.
Then I'm going to take a meter and place it on the left hand side, I'm going to get it
into the shadows, I want to get it into a position where it will look and see the camera,
but it will not see any of the key light.
I want to just get a true shadow reading.
So I am just going to put it behind her a little bit and a little bit down, and that's
going to give me a place for me to get my shadow reading.
Now as you bring a fill card in, or as you, in my case, you have a light that's behind
the camera that's going to open up the shadows.
As you change that light, you'll be able to get a reading in the shadow area and it will
tell you what your ratio is as it gets brighter or darker.
That shadow reading is going to be the constant.
When you get to where you are getting a one to one ratioing, the reality is it brings
the entire exposure up just a little bit, you've added a second light and you'll probably
have to stop down about a stop in order to see that one to one, which is exactly what
we did.
These are instant light meters, which means they're taking an overall exposure of the
light falling on the subject.
So you've gotta point them towards the camera.
I do point mine slightly towards the key light, because I want to favor that.
Primarily I want them aiming towards the camera so I get the light that's falling on them,
it gives me a proper reading.
When I put a light meter in front of a person's face and take an instant reading, it sees
the highlight and the shadow side at the same time.
It's seeing both of those.
And that's why I turn mine slightly towards the key light to give me a slight key light
reading, because when I put the meter in the shadows, it's entirely the shadows and I'm
getting just the shadow reading.
The nice thing about the Illuminatis is I have two of those meters on the set at once.
Which means at my phone I can see the highlight and the shadow side at the same time.
I can see my exposure change from the flash, or in an ambient situation, I can see it as
the ambient changes from my highlight to my shadow sides.
Using ratios is an important way to work because it allows you to decide ahead of time what
you want your image to look like and create the image that you have in your mind and not
just stumble into something.
That way you can say, "You know what, I'm gonna use this as a black and white shot.
I'm on this wedding, I'm gonna make this ratio a little heavier here because it's gonna be
a beautiful black and white," and you get your shots and then you move on to the next
one, "I'm gonna bring my ratios up a little bit here because I want this to be the beautiful
moment where the bride and the groom are kissing for the first time and I want this to be really
bright and airy."
So, you start making those decisions based on the ratio of the light you're going to
use in the set.
You can pre-visualize that, execute it quickly and have those in the end and get exactly
what you want.
It's also important to understand that when you're creating ratios is that everything
around you is starting to create a fill light.
Right here in this room we've got a white ceiling, we've got a white wall.
Actually, a yellow wall, which is even worse.
So, we've got different walls here.
So, all we can do is put a black up to kill all of the other bounce in the room so that
we now have complete control of the shadow light.
So, it's important to understand that you've got to control the surfaces around your subject
matter.
It's really important to understand about ratios is that there is no correct answer
here.
I've seen some very beautiful portraits done of the CEO of Coca-Cola with a very strong
light, much darker than you would usually see, but it worked for him.
They turned it into black and white.
A flat ratio of one to one looks terrible in black and white.
A heavier ratio of four to one, or eight to one, works fabulous in black and white.
It helps bring out the texture and the depth of the image.
It looks better when it's not so flat.
Understanding ratios and how you're going to use them in the end, whether it's all digital
or not, whether you're gonna make these into black and white or you're gonna make them
into color will allow you to make the correct decision on set that will give you the image
that you want.
So, there's a one to one ratio on Lauryn's face.
You can tell because there's absolutely no shadow in this whatsoever.
So, there's a two to one ratio, or there's only one stop difference between our highlight
and our shadow.
So, there's a four to one ratio or two stops difference between our highlight or our key
light side and our shadow side.
So, there's an eight to one ratio which is three stops between the highlight or the key
light side and the shadow side.
So, you're gonna need a meter now to be able to execute the lighting ratios that you have
in your mind for the images you're going to take.
That Illuminati light meter is really probably the best value I've seen out there for a light
meter and a color meter.
You really need to get to the Kickstarter campaign and get one, get yourself involved
in that.
It's gonna help you in your lighting, it's gonna help you pre-visualize, help you make
those decisions you need to on set.
So, get over to that Kickstarter, keep those cameras rolling, keep on clicking.
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[music]
I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.
And while I'm doing my close-up, why don't you subscribe to The Slanted Lens and then
you can do your close-up too.