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An Explanation of Lighting Ratios in Photography

Chris Gampat
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11/16/2015
1 Min read

Last Updated on 11/16/2015 by Chris Gampat

The shadow and fact that this image was lit on only one side makes this very low key
The shadow and fact that this image was lit on only one side makes this very low key

Lighting ratios are one of the principles every photographer who uses off-camera flash doesn’t think they’ll need, but in reality makes their life much simpler once mastered and practiced. The most famous use of lighting ratios has to do with making a white background go totally white.

In general, it helps you figure out what an image will essentially look like and how much power needs to be produced from each light in your scene.

Dan over at AdoramaTV did a tutorial on lighting ratios and for some of us, it will help to get a specific creative vision across. This may be very subtle but in reality it’s actually quite a bit of light loss when presented in the succession that is shown in the video. Shadows in an image can give off a much different feeling vs a totally shadowless image; and that’s really what lighting ratios are all about.

adoramatv dan lighting ratios portrait
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.