To be precise, it is an incident light meter. He is measuring the light actually falling on the subject (hence the shielding hand behind it, to minimize leakage from the spots behind). This is opposed to a reflected light meter, which measures how much light is bouncing off the subject (and, presumably, into the lens of your camera). They need to be used somewhat differently.
I will often meter different areas, to see how much light will fall behind the subject, etc... Maybe that's what he's doing? Ensuring that the subject will be lit properly, and that the background will also be lit the way he wants it to be.To be precise, it is an incident light meter. He is measuring the light actually falling on the subject (hence the shielding hand behind it, to minimize leakage from the spots behind). This is opposed to a reflected light meter, which measures how much light is bouncing off the subject (and, presumably, into the lens of your camera). They need to be used somewhat differently.
Correct me if I'm wrong (as I have no direct experience with incident light meters), but shouldn't he be facing the light meter toward the camera so that it "sees" the same light that falls on the subject? And those spots of light are still part of the incident light, so it makes no sense to hide that light from the meter.
He appears to be measuring the light being reflected off the subject (the little white spot on the meter is the integrating sphere, right?). Is he trying to use it as a reflected light meter?
Correct me if I'm wrong (as I have no direct experience with incident light meters), but shouldn't he be facing the light meter toward the camera so that it "sees" the same light that falls on the subject? And those spots of light are still part of the incident light, so it makes no sense to hide that light from the meter.
He appears to be measuring the light being reflected off the subject (the little white spot on the meter is the integrating sphere, right?). Is he trying to use it as a reflected light meter?
Correct me if I'm wrong (as I have no direct experience with incident light meters), but shouldn't he be facing the light meter toward the camera so that it "sees" the same light that falls on the subject? And those spots of light are still part of the incident light, so it makes no sense to hide that light from the meter.
He appears to be measuring the light being reflected off the subject (the little white spot on the meter is the integrating sphere, right?). Is he trying to use it as a reflected light meter?
The meter is pointed towards the camera that took the picture, so he is reading the incidental light at the subject, wanting to measure the exposure based on the light falling directly on the subject without light from any other source is why the meter is being shielded from the back light. Where reflect light being metered, the meter would be pointed at the subject from the cameras point of view (a spot meter would be best in this situation), same way the meter in an SLR works.