BTW, if you are not afraid of a little math then commit yourself to understanding the Inverse Square Law which profoundly affects everything in lighting. When the ISL bulb finally goes on, things like wrap, fall off, perspective, coverage, DOF and a host of other issues will all start to make sense organically and light control becomes oh so much easier. ISL is the Holy Grail of light. Wrap your hands around it and be blessed.
I know what the ISL is on paper, but in practice, I may as well put my head in the toilet.
I actually think light meters are still very relevant. I find it much easier to use a light meter and measure all my lights individually ( I have elinchrom's and the skyport system) while being able to adjust each light .1 stop up or down from the meter. It's much faster than setting them, running to the camera, taking a shot, adjusting them etc. I can get the exact setting I want much faster that way.
Since I began using my 5D2 in Live View mode for nearly all my portraits, and because I use flash with full wireless remote control of power and modeling lights, I've found myself using my meter less and less.
I use a variation of Chuck's towel--a textured white plastic panel--to set the base exposure, and the 5D2 Live View works fine to set the lighting ratio. What I see is what I get, and certainly all the detail I can see on the big screen will be captured in the image.
I've used ratios for decades, and with film they are a necessity to get consistent results. Now, not so much. Nor with wireless control of lights is it such a convenience to set them up while metering them individually from the subject position.
My I've got three Sekonic meters (an ancient Studio DeLux I bought in a pawn shop in 1972, an L-358, and an L-558) as well as a Pentax spotmeter from my "f/64" days (no batteries for it, though). I still use the L-558 when I don't have control of the light.
