We report measurements of the photorefractive phase shift and coupling constant of several photorefractive materials. We solve the problem of beam coupling and diffraction in a material with a dynamically written grating for arbitrary input beams. These solutions are used to determine the beam coupling as a function of the photorefractive phase phi and coupling constant g when one beam is either sinusoidally phase modulated or ramped ih phase. Experimental results are obtained for LiNbO3, BaTiO3, and for paraelectric potassium lithium tantalate niobate as a function of applied electric field.