Coffee factories are full of steam, dust, and typically…. DARKNESS. When the light pours in from the windows, you get this incredible atmosphere, but then you’re stuck with such a huge variance in light values that if you expose for your highlights, everything else is nearly black, but if you expose for your shadows, say hello to a millIon blown highlights. Usually when I’m teaching photography, I often encourage students to pick one and shoot to that limitation. Don’t try and satisfy both gods, because you’ll end up pissing them both off and end up with something pleasing neither. So what do you do? I’m not really in the camp of appeasing any gods, so I guess it’s a bit of dancing with the devil and doing whatever gets a compelling image or story. This is often tricky when it comes to photographers as we’re so obsessed with everything being technically “perfect,” that we get lost in the forest for the trees. Moment is always better than technical perfection, so never mind the noise, crank that iso, blow a few highlights and forget about everything you’ve been taught thats supposed to make a good photo. If it works, its not wrong, right?

Of course there are some little tricks you can do, but ultimately in these types of situations, something’s gotta give. It’s just up to you what you can let slide. All of these images are shot with the little fuji x100v. Not exactly known for its ability to handle high dynamic range. But this isn’t a pristine commercial shoot, the subject matter is a bit rough around the edges, so having a bit of technical imperfection isn’t a deal breaker for me. Medium matches the subject? Maybe I’m making excuses for poorly executed images. But that’s what I’m telling myself, and I’m certainly not losing any sleep over it. These were all from a recent trip from Buon Me Thuot down through Dak Nong back to Saigon with Etienne Bossot from the Pics of Asia fam. Let me know your thoughts and make sure to head over to Etienne’s site to read his thoughts on shooting in challenging environments.