So what is reasonable ratio?
Completely depends on what you want to do.
Portrait Photography Lighting - photography light ratios
I edited one of the shots in PS quick aside from my other shoulder not in frame I personally think this is well lit. Aside from the shadow under my chin. What do you think? Be as harsh as possible!
Another thing you need to consider, when shooting portraits, is the pose and/or angle of the subject to the camera. Having your model sitting square and facing the camera, is rarely the best option.
In this case, I don't like the hard side lighting, deep ratio and the straight on pose. It creates a very defined nose shadow which takes up a lot of space on the face. (the shadow, not the nose :er: )
This is one reason why is soft light is nice, it's more forgiving of your shadow placement.
One thing to watch for, when placing your subject & light, is where the catch light shows up...which is why it's so much harder without a model or stand in. At first, shoot for the catch light to be at either 10:00 or 2:00.
I think you are pretty close here, but I'd still suggest bringing the light around closer to the camera and raising it up a bit. You don't want the nose shadow to intrude into the eye.
If I were shooting, I'd have you turn to your right (our left)...thus hiding some of the lit side of your face, which is called 'short' lighting. If you turn enough so that the nose shadow meets up with the cheek shadow, leaving a triangle of light, it would be called 'Rembrandt' lighting.
It might be helpful for you to look up some of the basic portrait lighting terms/styles etc. Things like short lighting vs broad lighting. Loop, Rembrandt, split, butterfly etc.
Learn what these basic lighting styles look like and learn how to achieve them.
You don't have to use a specific one each time you shoot...but learning how to do them will be extremely beneficial.
I think it's probably good that you only have one light right now (or are only using one). That is a great way to learn. Too many people start with two, three or four lights, which can make it more complicated to learn the basics.
I'd