Mr Green Jeans & Sky Brothers

[candidrachel]

I've been reading my Understanding Exposure book and one aspect I'm not convinced by is the Sky Bros and Mr Green Jeans techniques. Does that really apply to digital? I imagine that if I took a meter reading from the blue sky then recomposed the shot to take a photo of my daughter then she would be really underexposed

Do these techniques really work. Its not like I can really try it out yet as we still have winter grey skies here and no sunsets.

[BigFuzzy]

Well, if using flash and you want a properly exposed background/ambient light, you always expose for the "sky" and then use your flash to properly expose your subject/daughter.
Not sure if that fits into what you're asking as I don't have that book with me.. but that's a situation where you'd always expose for ambient/sky.

[milosh]

Exactly what Fuzzy said. I don't have the book here either, but that's one of the two scenarios I can think of, when you would meter for the sky when taking a portrait. Then you would need to use something to fill in your subject (flash usually).

The other scenario is if you were shooting a silhouette. Then you wouldn't use the fill flash and your subject would be underexposed (it would be a silhouette).