Flash Meter Confusion

What do you when you meter (Shephard Polaris SP100) ambient at f/4 "in front of subject" and flash at say f/8 "just

right of camera?"

I'm not sure I completely follow your question. Your ambient light is f/4 (without flash), and your flash is at f/8? (it doesn't matter if it's right of the camera or not. Remember your ambient light takes into account shutter speed as well. You have two choices (both require that your shutter speed stays under your sync speed). You can either use a slower shutter speed to bring your ambient to f/8 (so if your f/4 is at 1/125th, you could move it to 1/60th to make the ambient f/8). You could also modify the flash by either reducing the output (if you can) or putting a scrim or translucent disk in between the flash and subject.

It sounds like you're describing a situation in which the ambient lighting is providing half the illumination of the flash. So your strongest light source would be flash.

 

Some, if not all, combination incident/flash meters can be used to meter both ambient and flash light and average the multiple sources. With some meters you can remove the diffusion dome and replace it with a flat disc to meter one light source at a time.

 

Can you describe the effect you're trying to achieve, or provide a link to an illustration of the effect you want?

Thank all for responding. Now that I re-read it my question is very bland. What I originally meant was if the two

sourses are of different f stops when metered what f stop do you set the camera at since you can't set it at f/4 and

f/8 to properly expose the background and the subject. Now do you adjust the flash to meet ambient or or ambient to

meet flash? I don't have a photo for reference because if I use f4 i get the subject properly exposed but not the

background sky and vice versa with f/8. I'm new to the metering part of photography.

 

I have mostly be working on controlling the direction of the light and learning to focuse on the details of the

composition of the portrait. I use an SB-25 wirelessly unmoded of camera, and a tripoded D-80. I know the light will

be hard but its all I can afford right now.

 

So what it all boils down to is I either get the background or the subject or neither properly exposed. Is it because

the meter different.

 

Here is a link to one photo I have that shows what I mean. http://www.photo.net/photodb/member-photos?

user_id=4036073