Question of flash metering

Believe it or not but today I got my first flash meter, the Sekonic L358.

I will be playing arround with it this week, but after reading the manual I would like some answers from the experienced guys over here to see if I have understand it correctly.

1. in the studio
If I want a face lit very evenly I disconnect all flashes except one and measure it from the face of the model it is lighting. After that I measure the second flash solo these two settings must be equal.

Seems fairly simple.
But what happens on the area's were the 2 flashes overlap ?
Can we measure this with both flashes operative ?
And take for example 3 measurements, one left, middle right ?

2. Outside.
This REALLY puzzles me.
If I want to use flash outside and get the real glam look (hard flash in).
I THINK I have to set the L358 to ambiant measuring and make a reading of a danger area (for example the hair), take for example f 11 @ 250 (Is it true I can never get above the 250 because of flash sync problems ??)
Now I change to flashcord setup and set the shutterspeed to 250 and take a measurement on the model and do this untill my flash output is f13. Now set the camera to 250 f13 and take the shot.
If I'm thinking right the model will not be blown out by the natural light (being under f13 and the flash will be harsch.

There is also another setting called flash percentage where the ambiant light is measured with the flash output.
Is it not better to use this setting and set the shutter for 250 and take the reading for example 70% flash for very hard flash and darker backgrounds and for example 50% for a more fill in flash.

3. Shutter speed
Last question, allready asked in 2
Can I set a shutterspeed higher than 250 when using studio strobes ?
When doing in the studio I get very dark pictures and strange artifacts, when lowering to arround 250 it's perfect.
HOWEVER when using the 580EX I can get perfect fill in flash with 1/1000's but the 580EX has a HS flash setting which my studio strobe does not have.

Sorry for all the questions, but maybe someone has a clear answer.

Thanks in advance.

Greetings,
Frank

The Sekonic L358 will tell you the relative contribution of ambient and flash light on the display in flash metering. You will need to take a separate ambient reading. You can't use a shutter speed faster then the sync speed or only part of the frame will be illuminated. I suggest that you use your Shutter Speed to handle the ambient light (below max sync speed), and the aperture to handle the flash output. Scott Smith of www.lightingmagic.com , reccommends always leaving all your lights on when flash metering. He takes readings by changing his position relative to the lights. I highly reccommend his book, available on his web site.

1. Where the coverage of two flashes overlap the light is additive and you will have one f-stop more light. If you are using broad soft sources like umbrellas or boxes it probably won't be too noticeable. If you are using harder sources you can feather the light to help overcome the difference.

2. You are correct here. Your flash will be 1/2 stop brighter than the ambient light and give you the hard look you want.

3. Shutter speed in the studio isn't very important unless you have a very bright modelling lights or a high ambient light level. The strobe is usually so much brighter and of such short duration that ambient light levels won't register. The high speed synch is only really necessary when using flash outdoors for fill or when used in your example above.

Ok thanks.
I have been playing arround a bit today and made some findouts, please tell me if they are correct.

When measuring a white background, I place the L358 for the background (1-2 cm) with the dome down, than I take the reading from that location.
This is the exact point where there is no blow out, just add 1 stop more for blow out.

I tried it on 4 different way's.

1.
Measured from the location of the camera pointing to the background, false reading gave 4.8 while it should have been f 11.00

2.
Measured with outward dome before the paper, gave f8.00 false

3.
Measured with outward dome pointed at the paper (15-20 cm's away) also gave f8.00 false

4.
Measured with extracted (inward dome) pointed to the flash 1-2 cm's from the paper giving arround f11.0

So that should be the correct way ??
Also tried this on a white T-shirt of my wife, measured with the dome out gave PERFECT reading for her face, but blew out the white T-shirt, when measuring with inward dome it gave f13.00 which was PERFECT for the shirt, exposed to the right at maximum.

@Scott I will order that book right away.

If you are taking readings from the camera position, that is a reflected light reading. Flash requires incident metering at the location where you want the reading and pointed towards the camera eg. subjects face, in front of the background, etc. The dome should be out unless you are trying to measure a single light source.

Ok I understand that.
But when I measure with the dome out on my white background I get way too low readings, meaning I will blow out the backdrop from f8.00 measured to f13 what it should be.
Same on the white t-shirt, when I drop the dome in and measure white it gives the perfect reading.

When measuring the face by the normal way (dome out) it goes perfect.

I have no explanation for why the dome out gives you f/8 and the dome in f/13. I would understand if it was the reverse as the dome out would be seeing your fill lights.

I was testing with just one flash on a white seamless paper background.

When I look in the manual it does make sense a bit.
The inward dome should be used for papers and paintings, the outward dome for everything 3 Dimensional like buildings and people.

I will be testing some more tomorrow in real live situations with a model.

It's an incident reading, so the kind of surface should affect the resulting picture or a reflected reading, not the incident reading.

correct, that's what puzzling me.
I have focused on dot on my white backdrop and wanted it to blow out just barely.
With the normal readings I got way overblown backgrounds.

Could it be that the backdrop (paper) reflects more than it gets (has white paper a gain value ??)

I will test more today maybe it will figure itself out today .

Frank, if I were doing it, I'd take an overall reading & then look at the pic to see what the result is. Digital makes things SO much easier than the film "shoot & pray" metered approach!
No model yet? No problem! Use the self timer & take a shot of "self"!

Hi,
I had the same opinion but too often I ran into problems with multiflash setups and just blown out area's and balance problems on faces.

Today I had the first session with the meter and it's PERFECT.
I can now get beautiful evenly lit faces from 2 different flashes, which I normaly never could get perfect, I could do it for 90% but never the full 100% perfect.

I will never work without the meter again

Different strokes...

Tried it and you like it

Do you have a light meter ?

when you guys are talking about flashes, are u talking about Hot shoe flashes such as teh Canon EX and the Sigma supers?

I am planning to get a light meter too... and also been puzzled at the fact at how it will meter multiple wireless flashes together.

Seems very complicated trying to render in my mind how it would work without getting blown on faces. Someone explain to me how you guys normally do it say if u had 3 flashes on a model, how would u use a light meter to get the right exposer of all 3 flashes?