exposing for a background

obviously im a beginner so dont be too harsh.

what does it mean when someone says "expose for the background" .. does that mean act like im only taking a a photo of the background and not the subject and to set aperture/shutter to what i want the background to look like?

i want to get into some off camera lighting and ive heard lots of people to say to expose for the background and then set the flashes to expose the subject appropriately..

can someone go into further depth with this please.. thanks

jpanganiban wrote in post #6758249
obviously im a beginner so dont be too harsh.

what does it mean when someone says "expose for the background" .. does that mean act like im only taking a a photo of the background and not the subject and to set aperture/shutter to what i want the background to look like?

i want to get into some off camera lighting and ive heard lots of people to say to expose for the background and then set the flashes to expose the subject appropriately..

can someone go into further depth with this please.. thanks

When shooting with flash:
Expose for the background(i.e., ambient exposure) with shutter speed.
Expose for the subject with aperture.

breathless wrote in post #6758793
When shooting with flash:
Expose for the background(i.e., ambient exposure) with shutter speed.
Expose for the subject with aperture.

I'm not a noob, but that didn't make an awful lot of sense to me, until I turned it round.

It might be easier for a noob to understand to say:

Use aperture to get the correct exposure of your subject with your flash.

Use the shutter speed which combined with the aperture you have set for your subject will give you the correct exposure for your background.

Sorarse wrote in post #6758839
I'm not a noob, but that didn't make an awful lot of sense to me, until I turned it round.

It might be easier for a noob to understand to say:

Use aperture to get the correct exposure of your subject with your flash.

Use the shutter speed which combined with the aperture you have set for your subject will give you the correct exposure for your background.

Yes, flipping it around makes it easier to understand.

The general procedure, to recap, is:

1. Select aperture you would like to use for the subject of the photo.
2. Select a shutter speed (and/or ISO) that will properly expose your background for the aperture you have chosen.
3. Select lighting power that will properly expose your subject for your chosen aperture/ISO.