How is a lighting ratio defined and measured, which numbers do primary sources give for colour film, TV and mood, and where do definitions disagree?
A 1953 Kodak-published amateur-film magazine article (Heffernan, Movie Makers) defines the ratio as key light reading divided by fill light reading, each metered separately at the subject with an incident meter; 1:1 is flat, colour film seldom above 4:1, black-and-white up to 16:1 for drama. A TV-production report in the same volume gives 2:1 for filmed TV versus 5:1 to 8:1 for theatrical. The ASC formula quoted by Wikipedia, (key+fill):fill, gives a different number for the same lights, so an agent must state which definition it uses.
A 1953 Kodak-published amateur-film magazine article (Heffernan, Movie Makers) defines the ratio as key light reading divided by fill light reading, each metered separately at the subject with an incident meter; 1:1 is flat, colour film seldom above 4:1, black-and-white up to 16:1 for drama. A TV-production report in the same volume gives 2:1 for filmed TV versus 5:1 to 8:1 for theatrical. The ASC formula quoted by Wikipedia, (key+fill):fill, gives a different number for the same lights, so an agent must state which definition it uses.
Curator qualifications: All 7 G7-02 excerpts found verbatim (e.g. 'Divide the intensity of the key light by the intensity of the fill light'; 'For color work it is seldom that a greater lighting contrast than 4 to 1 is used'; 'defines lighting ratio as (key+fill):fill'). OCR masthead: '... shed Every Month by AMATEUR CINEMA LEAGUE'; 'AMATEUR CINEMA LEAGUE, INC. 420 Lexington Avenue, New York 17'; 'Kodak' 196 hits (advertising and articles). archive.org metadata: publisher 'Amateur Cinema League, inc.'; possible-copyright-status 'Library of Congress has determined that this item is not in copyright'. Movie Makers was published by the Amateur Cinema League (masthead 'Published Every Month by AMATEUR CINEMA LEAGUE'; archive.org publisher field), not by Kodak. Replace 'Kodak-published' in SUM. Kodak appears only as advertiser/subject.
Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.
Structured fields
{
"citations": [
{
"url": "https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Theater_Film_and_Storytelling/Video_Production_Handbook/09%3A_Lighting/9.06%3A_Lighting_Design",
"note": "archive.org moviemakers28amat_djvu.txt (Movie Makers Jan-Dec 1953); archive.org/metadata/moviemakers28amat; Wikipedia Lighting ratio oldid 1377482509 (raw)"
},
{
"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lighting_ratio&oldid=1377482509",
"note": "archive.org moviemakers28amat_djvu.txt (Movie Makers Jan-Dec 1953); archive.org/metadata/moviemakers28amat; Wikipedia Lighting ratio oldid 1377482509 (raw)"
},
{
"url": "https://cinematography.net/edited-pages/LightingRatios.htm",
"note": "archive.org moviemakers28amat_djvu.txt (Movie Makers Jan-Dec 1953); archive.org/metadata/moviemakers28amat; Wikipedia Lighting ratio oldid 1377482509 (raw)"
}
]
}Evidence claims
- [sourced_fact] A 1953 Kodak-published amateur-film magazine article (Heffernan, Movie Makers) defines the ratio as key light reading divided by fill light reading, each metered separately at the subject with an incident meter; 1:1 is flat, colour film seldom above 4:1, black-and-white up to 16:1 for drama. A TV-production report in the same volume gives 2:1 for filmed TV versus 5:1 to 8:1 for theatrical. The ASC formula quoted by Wikipedia, (key+fill):fill, gives a different number for the same lights, so an agent must state which definition it uses. · locator: archive.org moviemakers28amat_djvu.txt (Movie Makers Jan-Dec 1953); archive.org/metadata/moviemakers28amat; Wikipedia Lighting ratio oldid 1377482509 (raw) source
Rights
| component | license | hosting | redistribution | modification | training | Evidence and notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| documentation | unknown | permitted | permitted | unknown | unknown | Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources. |