JDog

Using a handheld meter with the globe is used at the subject. You can use it on the light side or the dark side to see the ratio of light hitting the subject. The globe should be in full light or fully in shadow when doing this. This type of light reading is called taking an incident reading.

The reading given by the handheld meter is of the light hitting the subject and if exposed using this reading assumes the subject is an 18% grey card. So, if the subject is darker you'll have to expose more and if lighter, expose less. Caucasian skintones look best when exposed to match 36% grey so underexpose about a stop from the reading to achieve this.

The other type of light reading one can use is using the meter built into the camera. This type of light reading is called a reflected light reading. The camera meter reads the light reflected from the subject and gives a reading that would result in the subject being exposed to match an 18% grey card. So, if the subject is darker you'll want to underexpose and if lighter you'll want to overexpose.