[bobbyz]

Benji,

You say " My background lights read F 10 at the subject. I take ALL meter readings at the subject, so for my background light reading I place the dome of the meter right beside the cheek of the subject aimed at the background and I take my reading."

I tried that where my main was at f8, and bg as measured at my subject with the dome (recessed) pointing towards the bg was at f10. But that settings gave me horrible flare on my subject. Subject was 6 feet away from the bg and bg light was behind the subject, half way between subject and white seemless bg. I had to crank my bg light way down to get good exposure on the subject and still keep white on the bg.

I don't understand why it has to be f10 at the subject pointing towards the bg and don't care of what's actually falling on the bg? Suppose I increase the bg to subject distance. Now I will have to increase output of my bg light to get f10 on the subject. That will throw more light on the bg than what's needed to make it white but now totally over blown, isn't it? Just trying to learn.