Can someone clarify what he is saying......

[derrickg]

Ok if you read below the photo he states what he used and how he metered everything. My question is, i dont understand when he says he exposed for the sky, then dialed flash heads until subject was exposed properly. Does he mean he took a meter reading from the sky then just did trial and error on the dialing in on strobes? Im confused about this. Hope this makes sense. Here's the linkto photo:

http://flickr.com/photos/22804170@N0...pool-strobist/

[JohnT]

Basically, yes. I believe what he did was metered the camera for the sky, probably used a handheld light meter to read the subject, and then adjusted his strobes accordingly.

[srwatters]

It's typically called "dragging the shutter". You use a longer shutter speed to capture the ambient light in the BG and use the strobes to expose the subject in the FG.

Worked quite well in the image you linked.

[zepp]

It means he took the ambient exposure for the outside and matched his strobes to that exposure to balance the overall exposure for the scene. He wouldn't have to do this by trial and error, as you say, since he knows his ambient exposure from the reading he took. In simple terms he matches his strobe output to the f/stop reading of the outdoors by taking meter readings of the strobes and adjusting the output accordingly.

I do this quite regularly on assignment in the same type setting.

[derrickg]

i see, thanks for the info!