Photopolymerization reaction can be used in self-developing photopolymerizable resin to recording holographic gratings. In this work, the efficiencies of two and three component photoinitiating system for holographic recording are analyzed in term of photopolymerization and grating diffraction yield kinetics. The selected systems are based on a visible dye, electron donor and electron acceptor. Time resolved and steady state spectroscopic studies of the photoinitiators are presented. This detailed photochemical study outlines the possible existence of photocyclic initiating systems where the dye is regenerated during the photochemical process. To study the impact of photoinitaiting system on the hologram grating formation, diffraction curves are compared to those of monomer to polymer conversion. This work outlines the importance of the photochemistry on fi nal holographic material properties.