LINK OF THE WEEK: Wicked Women (web series) bit.ly/37YfdfB I will also mention here because I very much forgot to stress this in the video. When communicating what you want on set it is communicated in stops rather than stating what the ratio is. It's great to use the ratio for your own calculations but when discussing this with your gaff, knowing the stop you're going for is important and it's the best way to communicate that to them. Saying a ratio to them, not so much. Ratios come from photography world but of course these things overlap. And yes I used f stops here because the lens I am using is a stills lens. Remember, if you are using a light meter, double check all your settings you're metering to. Have fun with it! :D

8:1 is 3 stops because each stop halves/doubles the amount of light - therefor 2:1 is 2x the light/1 stop, 4:1 is 4x the light/2 stops, and 8:1 is 8x the light/3 stops

Hey Felicia, awesome vid! As a young mid-20’s gaffer that also carries an L-758C lightmeter (as well as a c700 color meter) I have an opinion on the technique of cupping your palm over the sphere to cut out stray lights that may affect your reading of the key/fill/backlight or whatever you’re reading. I’m pretty sure it was developed for incident meters that don’t have a retractable sphere like the Spectra IV-A (which I also own but it broke is stuck in Hollywood now being repaired by spectra) the one Roger Deakins uses (which by the way, comes with a flat disc you can manually swap in to achieve this purpose as well), and sure it ‘looks cool’ to do the cupping thing on set, we often see BTS photos of DP’s doing it but that’s what the retraction feature of the Sekonic L-758 is for. If you look in the manual for the Sekonic l-758 it literally states on page 19 #”3. When the Lumisphere is retracted (flat diffuser function) This is used to measure manuscripts, paintings or other flat copy. It can also be used for Contrast function (see page 36) or measuring illumination (see page 38).” Contrast function being the topic of this video: lighting ratios. Also I will just tend to point the sphere directly at the light, not slightly to camera, especially when you’re just figuring out the ratio, pointing slightly to camera is what you would do, with an extended sphere to get an overall exposure for your shot which is more of a film shooting technique I guess. I’m not saying your techniques are wrong, far from it, I was also taught by my mentors the same thing and they also carry L-758’s that have the retracting lumisphere function and I was scratching my head on why the cupping the hand over the sphere technique is still used when the feature to retract it is right there. I honestly feel it is a technique carried over from DP’s and gaffers using older lightmeters that did not have this feature built-in. I’m really sorry to get so nerdy and literally quote a manual to you, I’m just quite passionate about lightmeters, coming from a background as a film photographer hobbyist as well, haha. I should really do more experiments to bust some of these myths. And light meters aren’t outdated technology!! You should mention it let’s you work on lighting a set before the camera is even setup. You may be on one scene that’s still being shot and the gaffer has pre lot the next scene In another room, you can just waltz over with your light meter and do some quick readings to catch any glaring things you need adjusted in terms of ratios before you refine it with the camera after your previous scene has been shot. With scenes that have been blocked to involve a talent walking a distance, and you light with pools of light to create contrast you can do a walk-through with your light meter to get an idea of the ‘pools of light’ that will fall on the talent without having to have your camera and stand-in setup to walk thru the predetermined blocking just to check some exposure stuff (obviously this benefits a gaffer more cause he often works pre lighting a scene for the DP before camera arrives). Finally, I’d be careful about saying 1:1 and 2:1 ratio is for comedy, not all comedy is shot that way, I would maybe say sitcom is... but if you take Key & Peele for example they light their scenes very dramatically to parody serious films yet their work is seen as a comedy. I think naming examples would help someone in this instance but I understand if you don’t wanna step into copyright issues showing clips from movies. Thanks again for the awesome video, love seeing more people talk about light meters!

Thanks Felicia! I honestly struggled with wrapping my head around this concept the first time reading/researching about it, having a clear video explaining ratios definitely helps and I'll be coming back to this

I really appreciate you taking the time to talk about what most don't. I'm pretty much self taught. Learned by doing and have always played by... Eye? But these little tips really helps me grasp what it is that I'm looking for. I get a deeper understanding and it makes it easier to improve. Thanks for the awesome content

As always, some of the best, most informative and useful info out there. Thank you!

Hey i found your channel last year and I was really looking forward to your videos. Love your personality! Thanks for sharing 😁

Most awesome channel. Thanks for your amazing work and for sharing your knowledge! It's greatly appreciated.

Thanks! With your clear explanation, I will be using lighting ratios much more knowledgeably.

Thank you so much for this valuable and presenting it in such an easy way to understand way. You rock !

subscribed! your video quality is awesome and you provide such helpful information!! thank You! :)

Thanks Felicia, simple and informative.

Amazing video ! Thanks for talking any a topic not most people talk about 🙌

Great job, Felicia! Found out about your channel recently and really like it. I love how you explain the really professional cinematography knowledge in a starter friendly way. Keep up the great work!

2 to the power of 3 equals 8. number 3 represents number of stops. 2 to the power of 4 equals 16, 4 stops of difference. great video!

This was such a wonderful video. Thanks for sharing.

Another great subject. Thank you 🙏🏾

This video was so helpful... Thank You!!

Just get to your channel, subscribed and I LOVE IT, thank you for sharing. Cheers from Costa Rica. ☕🌋🌴☀️📸👍🏻

Thank yoy for this reminder, and great video.

Awesome as usual, stay safe.

Oh my god thank you, I know already you’re gonna make it make sense to me

Excellent!

Great vid!

Love using my light meter. Use the incident meter on my sekonic which doesn't have the spot meter function. To be truthful its my dads lol who I kinda borrowed. Finding it amazing useful for helping with the dynamic range of the camera

Excellent and very refreshing. Thank you. The number of times ive been on set, in a workshop and training over the years and the tutor, for example that will dismiss lighting ratios..because he a has a Red, even when challenged by Camera Assistants and DP's. Photometrics is going that way too, a lost art. The number of Cinematographers that don't know what this is, is staggering. Are they cinematographers? You should be capable of planning and start lighting a set with just these skills, and no camera with a monitor. Lighting ratios and photometrics and a lighting plan. Theres a question for your next 'DP'!!! Good spot, thank you.

This was GREAT Flick!

So valuable

From my Advanced Cinematography class in college back in 2009: Lighting Ratios Report x= stops y= ratio 2x=y log(y)÷log(2)=x 
 Methodology: Once I got the assignment I used the 2x=y to figure out what the stop difference would be based upon the fact that I knew that 20=1, 21=2, 22=4, and 23=8. All I had to do then was figure out what the stop difference was for 1.5:1, 2.5:1, and 3:1. So I knew I had to use the formula of log(y)÷log(2)=x to determine the stop difference for those given ratios. For 1.5:1, I found that the answer was 0.58496, so I rounded to 6/10, because each stop can only go up by one-tenth. For 2.5:1, I found that the answer was 1.32193, so I rounded to 1 3/10. For 3:1, I found that the answer was 1.584961 to 1.584964, but still I rounded to 1 6/10. *Some of these are supposed to be 2 to the power of, but KZfaq commenting sucks for that formatting because it doesn't allow you to superscript text.

Thank you for the great info! Quick question: how much do dynamic range/flat color profiles/contrast affect thees looks?

Good stuff

This is great! Would it be possible to make a video on how you set up all of these lighting situations sometime? This may be a little too obvious for some, so maybe it won't be worth your time. I think it'd be super cool and helpful though!

thank you for clear explanation, I'm just curios how do we measure lighting ratio with false color from each side of the subject or background?

thankyou!

Could you please make a video on how to read the light meter

Great video!! What should be the F# set on the camera?

Hi Felicia nice video on lighting ratios! Just curious if you have any videos showing you go through your lighting process with a light meter from the beginning of a shoot? Like deciding, "Ok I want my key to be X, and my fill/background to be X, now let me take my readings and show people how I use that information to adjust lights/camera settings to get the image I want."

You're good!

A stop is x2. So 3 stops is 2 to the power 3. 4 stops is 2^4 etc. 2^3=8, so 8:1 ratio.

Hi Felicia, greets from Italy 😊

Everyone is Cinematographer until a light meter is involved :D

Very didactic.

You are just brilliant in explanation I have doubt what's stops u r mentioning f4 and f8 how it's 2 stop difference from f4 to f8?

El Zone for the win

I was gonna make a lighting joke... but I'm not bright enough.... 😄😄

Sweet video must say I don't think there's a way to use false colors to do that

yes im a photographer with , latest full frame cameras d850s and always use light meters , on spot , same as your sekonic L758 D, theres no shame in it , i shoot wildlife and landscape , cameras no natter how great , the metering isnt infallible , ps i lived with two lesbians in the 90s , i didnt make any films though ! thanks for sharing

Wow. Very helpful info. I'm a photographer who dabbles un video. Do these same radios apply in photography? PEACE from ATL ✊🏾📸

before using that fancy lightmeter remember you need to calibrated with your camera lens combo and that's a pain in the arse the iso 100 on your sekonic it not similar to what your camera thinks about iso

3 stops! As you know, a each stop doubles light. So 2:1 is a stop, 4:1 is 2 stops, therefore 8:1 is 3. This is funny to me. I’m a stills assistant. I’ve never heard Photographer’s ask for light as a ratio like this (8:1 for eg); but am forever hearing things like “meter the fill 2 and a half stops under”. Same thing I guess.

it's three stops, twice for each stop 2x each. 2x2=4x2 = 8

3 stops

*I definitely clicked the right video.* 💡🎥

STOP CREATING PERFECT CONTENT

ouhhh as a non english spoken natively, you speak very very too much quickly for me 😢😱😆

Uh