"Dragging the shutter and using flash"

I have seen this stated a number of times and am wondering if it is essentially 2nd curtain sync flash. If not could someone give me a little better idea on what this means?

It's not essentially second curtain !
Your flash exposes your subject while your shutter stays open in order to capture the ambient light !
Simple, darken your living room, except for a small ambient light in the background. Take a picture of a person, sitting in between you and the light. Use manual mode, select 1/60sec f5.6.
Next, change your settings into 1/8sec f5.6 and shoot !
See any difference ?
Experiment and report !

Rgds
Velu

I will tonight. I was assuming that by setting second curtain on flash that the shutter would open for an extended period and then the flash pop just before the shutter closes. That would give the ambient light and then illuminate the subject. Ill try both methods and see what happens.

These 2 concepts seem like they would be the same but my guess is they will not. I know it would be different with a moving object but what I am seeing referenced is a low light reception and a well lit couple slow dancing.

"Dragging the shutter" typically refers to using first curtain flash sync with a somewhat slow shutter speed to capture ambient background lighting. In most cases, the effect would be essentially the same with second curtain sync.

Whether the flash fires at the beginning of the exposure or the end will only make a difference if something is moving.

Thanks Curtis, time to start playing in the dark.

Flash freezes the subject, but you get to draw out the back ground and ghost the subject.

Example:

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