For the past two weeks, I’ve been running two private photography tours in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. These tours have been all about the coffee activities that take place during this season, particularly focusing on the coffee-drying factories of Dak Lak. Before wrapping up the last tour, my friend Lee decided to join me for a short road trip from Lak Lake to Ho Chi Minh City. (More on Lee later—I promise!)

During my time in Dak Lak, I spent quite a bit of time exploring and photographing the magical coffee factories of the region, and I’ve got a lot to say about them. So, here’s a new composition tutorial for you, written live from Saigon!

Now, I’ve already written about these incredible places when I discovered them last year, but here’s a quick recap: These factories are where coffee beans are dried and prepared for sale to their final buyers. What makes them special is their dramatic and challenging visual atmosphere, which offers amazing photographic opportunities for those who know how to work with the light, contrast, and action. Today, I want to share my best tips for getting the most out of shooting in these unique settings.

By the way, as you can see I have decided to now add my new tutorials in the blog form. I think they look better this way. Would you agree?

What Makes These Coffee Factory Scenes Unique?

• Dark, Warehouse Interiors: Shooting inside these enormous warehouses is tricky because they’re incredibly dark. You’ll need to push your ISO higher to capture details while still keeping noise under control.
• High Contrast: Most scenes in these factories are filled with stark contrasts—deep shadows and blindingly bright light streaming in from outside. Deciding on the right exposure is a real challenge.
• Smoky and Steamy Atmosphere: The steam and dust in these factories create stunningly dramatic images, but they also make focusing and exposure more challenging. (More on that later!)
• Fast-Moving Subjects: Workers in these factories are constantly on the move, so you have to think on your feet to keep up with the action. This fast-paced environment creates fantastic photographic opportunities, but you won’t have time to overthink your shots.
• Backlit Scenes: The light often comes from behind your subjects, so you’ll frequently be dealing with backlighting—both a challenge and an opportunity for beautiful silhouettes.
• Dust and Action: The combination of swirling dust and busy workers means you’ll need to protect your gear (don’t even think about changing lenses in there!) but it also allows for highly dynamic and atmospheric compositions.

How to Shoot in These Challenging Conditions

Camera Settings

Most of the images I took in the factories were shot with a Fujifilm X-T3 and the 23mm f/2.0 lens. I only brought out my Canon R5 for half a day, paired with my trusty (but heavy!) 24-105mm f/2.8 lens. The Canon handles noise better than the Fuji, but since I kept my ISO under 2000, the Fuji performed well enough for most shots.

Exposure

This is, hands down, the trickiest part of shooting in coffee factories. The scenes are so high-contrast that deciding what to expose for can be overwhelming.

Generally, photographers are taught to avoid overexposing their highlights. But in these factories, that advice can be limiting. If you expose for the highlights, the shadow areas become so dark that you lose all detail in the action.

Here’s my advice: Embrace the contrast. Let the brightest parts of the windows or sky blow out—they’re supposed to be overexposed in these kinds of scenes. Instead, focus on the action. Expose for the workers and the darker areas where the real story is happening.

The key is to position yourself so that your subject is doing something visually interesting in just the right spot, where the light naturally makes them pop out of the background.

Aperture

I would have loved to shoot everything at f/8 to capture maximum sharpness and detail, but the low light made that impossible. Most of the time, I shot at around f/4 to balance sharpness and light, though I occasionally pushed to f/5.6 when the light allowed.

When isolating a single subject, I opened up the aperture to f/2 or f/2.8 to blur the background and make my subject stand out. It’s all about finding the balance between depth of field and available light.

Shutter Speed

This is a matter of personal taste. Personally, I prefer my images to freeze the action entirely. Even when workers were tossing coffee into the air, I aimed for sharp, crisp details in every shot.

To achieve this, I kept my shutter speed above 1/400th of a second and sometimes went as high as 1/500th or more for very fast-moving scenes. Of course, this often required a higher ISO, so I only used these settings when the light was bright enough.

ISO

Shooting with the Fujifilm X-T3 meant I had to be careful with my ISO settings. The Fuji doesn’t handle noise as well as the Canon, so I did everything I could to keep my ISO below 2000. The noise starts to get out of hand at higher levels, and I didn’t want grainy images to ruin the atmosphere.

Focusing Tips

Focusing in these smoky, high-contrast conditions was challenging—especially with the Fuji’s less-than-stellar autofocus capabilities. Here’s what worked for me:

• Focus on high-contrast edges: for example, when shooting this scene below, which was very very smokey, I placed my focus point on the edge of the machine (red rectangle) which is where there is a sharp contrast between light and dark, making it easier for the camera to identify. This area where I focused is about the same distance as the people in my frame, and as I was shooting this at f4.0 I had quite a lot in focus.

• Anticipate movement: Pre-focus on a spot where you know the subject will be, and let them move into the frame. I saw the man walking towards this metal shovel on the floor in the scene below (red rectangle). As this metal element had some contrasts, I knew the camera would easily focus on it. All I had to do then was wait for the man to walk by it. Once again, this was shot at f4.0 so I had some margin as to where the subject could be and remain sharp.

Composition Tips: my general approach. 

One worker standing in the smoke might make for a beautiful photo, but it doesn’t tell much of a story. You know me—I love layers and complexity in my compositions.

I started simple, with one subject in the frame, and then gradually added more elements—workers, tools, beams of light—to create more dynamic and storytelling images.

When photographing a single subject, I used a wide aperture to make them the star of the show. But when several elements came together, I composed with all of them in mind, and with a smaller aperture, creating a richer narrative within the frame.

Focus on the Light – Only the Best Light

If you’ve been following my adventures over the years, you already know this: I am absolutely obsessed with shooting in the best light. And when I step into a setting as visually chaotic as these coffee factories, my first instinct isn’t to seek out the best-looking subject or the most interesting action. Instead, I look for where the light is falling beautifully and where the background feels clean and non-distracting.

It’s a simple, yet powerful approach—find the light first, then let everything else fall into place. Once I’ve identified the perfect spot, it’s just a matter of patience. I wait for a subject to walk into that light, and when I’m very lucky, the right subject performs the right action in that golden pocket of illumination. That’s when the magic happens.

This mindset can really help simplify your thought process when walking into a busy, overwhelming location. Don’t try to tackle everything happening all at once. Instead, scan for the most interesting spots of light. These light pockets are your stage. Once you’ve found them, let the action come to you. Wait for the subjects to naturally interact with the light, and trust that the scene will unfold beautifully in time.

Remember, photography is as much about patience as it is about creativity. And in environments like these, light is your best storytelling tool—use it wisely.

Patterns and Repetitions

One way to simplify a busy image and make it more visually striking is by focusing on patterns and repetitions. In chaotic scenes, like those in the coffee factories, where there are so many people and elements to take in, the brain can get overwhelmed. Adding patterns or repetitions gives the viewer’s eyes a break, offering anchor points that guide them through the frame.

For me, repetition became a key tool in these factories. I often looked for recurring shapes, colors, or movements and incorporated them into my compositions. These patterns not only added harmony to the image but also created a sense of rhythm.

When I spotted a subject doing something interesting, I tried to connect them with similar elements in the foreground or background—like matching the silhouette of a worker with the repetitive stacks of coffee beans or playing with echoes of color in different parts of the frame. These small visual connections help create an engaging image that is both simplified and cohesive, making it easier for viewers to fully appreciate the story you’re trying to tell.

Keep Your Subject in the Area of High Contrast

To make your subject truly stand out and grab the viewer’s attention, it’s crucial to place them in an area of high contrast. Contrast is what naturally draws the eyes in a photo, alongside highlights and vivid colors. By positioning your subject (or part of them) in a zone with strong contrast, you’ll ensure they immediately catch the viewer’s focus.

When it comes to shooting silhouettes, this concept is relatively straightforward: position your dark subject against the brightest background available. Conversely, if your subject is bright, look for the darkest background you can find to make them pop. This simple yet powerful technique will make your images more visually striking and impactful.

Capture the Different Steps of the Process

As a photographer, storytelling is often at the heart of what we do. And places like coffee factories aren’t just about the hardworking people and their actions—it’s about everything else that comes together to create the bigger picture. From workers taking a break and chatting, to the trucks arriving with fresh coffee beans, there’s so much to capture beyond the obvious.

When you’re in a dynamic environment like this, try to document the whole story. Ask yourself: how could you convey the full process in just five images? Look around and observe the rhythm of the space—what’s happening beyond the main action? Follow the workers after their tasks. Do they move to an intriguing spot? Are they interacting in ways that visually enrich the scene? Pay attention to these moments, as they often provide layers of context and interest that bring the entire story to life.

Lee’s composition tips

I’m now with Lee Starnes, who has been running photography tours with me for many years now. He is an awesome commercial photographer as well with a photojournalism background. I asked him to share some of his composition tips. By the way, Lee wrote his own blog post about our trip to the coffee factories which you can find here.

Keep Your Subject’s Head in a Clear Space

One of Lee’s key pointers is to keep your subject’s head in a clear space within the frame. This helps them stand out and avoids visual clutter that might distract the viewer.

“Dance with the Devil”

“You can’t just expose for the highlights and ignore the shadows—you have to dance with the devil and find the right balance,” Lee explains. He recommends underexposing the shadows by 2 to 3 stops to avoid completely blowing out the highlights, especially in high-contrast scenes like these.

Simplify Your Composition

“These places are extremely busy, and it’s easy to end up with a cluttered frame that confuses your viewer about what they’re supposed to focus on,” Lee says. Less is more. He emphasizes the importance of creating a cohesive series of images rather than trying to cram everything into a single shot. By capturing multiple frames—a wide-angle shot, a mid-range composition, and a few details—you can tell a more compelling story.

Focus on the Story

“In these situations, it’s so easy to get caught up in the magical light that you forget about capturing a dynamic moment,” Lee warns. “If you show me a photo that’s just ‘pretty,’ I’ll ask: So what? What’s the story?” According to him, a strong body of work, built from a series of thoughtful images, will make even the simplest moments feel more meaningful.

Anticipate the Moment

Lee also stresses the importance of observing your environment before you start shooting. “Take the time to watch the scene and notice where the action happens or how people move,” he says. “You’ve already found the good light—now it’s a waiting game. Be patient, and trust your instinct to capture that perfect moment when something dynamic unfolds in the light.”

Photo Editing Tips

I usually avoid spending too much time editing, but these photos demanded more attention due to the high contrast and smoky atmosphere.

• Dehaze: I used Lightroom’s dehaze tool sparingly to cut through the smoke. Too much dehaze crushed the blacks, so I kept it subtle.
• Contrast and Blacks: The smoke reduces contrast, so I pushed it more than usual, along with the blacks, to create a punchier image.
• Clarity: Normally, I keep clarity below +15, but for these images, I pushed it to +30 or +50 to make the details pop.
• Color or B&W?: If the colors worked well together, I kept them. If not, I converted the image to black and white. This is a personal choice, but I recommend asking yourself: Do the colors add to the story? If not, ditch them.