Morning Ambience
St George Street, St Augustine, Florida
A few hours before throngs of tourists flock to the historic streets of downtown St. Augustine, early risers can have these beautiful places all to themselves. As the dark of night transitions into the blue hour and then yields to the aureate ambience created by the rising sun’s low-angle light, the city transforms. Darkness—humbled but not vanquished—strategically retreats, biding its time, hiding in corners, crevices, and nooks, sneaking away from wherever the light falls, mandating shadows.
For photographers, this presents both opportunities and challenges.
The first opportunity is the beautiful light—objects and people glow in lambent tones. The second is the photogenic ambience itself. With fewer people around, one can create images devoid of human presence (if that’s the intent).
The challenges, however, are twofold. The first lies in achieving proper exposure in such high-contrast scenes. The second arises if you’re interested in architectural photography or want to keep verticals straight in the final image—you must carefully decide what equipment to use.
The first challenge, exposure, can be left to the ever-capable processing units and AI-based algorithms in modern digital cameras—a “spray and pray” approach. An alternative, and perhaps more rewarding, method is to adapt the Zone System to digital image capture. Engineers at camera companies continue to develop sensors that capture increasingly wide dynamic ranges.
In the case of the camera I was using—the Hasselblad CFV 100 digital back on a Cambo WRS-1600—the sensor offers an impressive 15-stop dynamic range. Compared to the film days, we’ve come a long way!
Let’s first look at the Zone System in terms of exposure values. If one wishes to prevent pure white (no detail in highlights) and pure black (no detail in shadows), then one must capture detail from Zone 1/2 to Zone 8/9.
Now, let’s look at the approximate dynamic ranges of some of the films I’ve used over the years, and see how they compare to the dynamic range of a modern sensor like the one in the Hasselblad. Yet, it bears repeating—dynamic range alone doesn’t make an image resonate. Technical perfection isnt enough to move the heart. What I’m exploring here is simply what’s possible—the boundaries of what our tools can capture before emotion and vision take over.
| Film / Medium | Approx. Dynamic Range | Stops (EV) | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fuji Velvia 50 (Slide) | ~5–6 stops | ≈6 EV | Rich color, limited highlight headroom |
| Kodachrome 64 (Slide) | ~6–7 stops | ≈7 EV | Balanced midtones, moderate latitude |
| Portra 400 (Color Negative) | ~12–13 stops | ≈13 EV | Very wide latitude, forgiving highlights |
| Ilford HP5+ (B&W) | ~13–14 stops | ≈14 EV | Flexible tonal curve, push/pull capable |
| Modern Digital (RAW) | ~15 stops | ≈15 EV | Linear, broad, highly recoverable shadows |
The second challenge is keeping the verticals straight. To achieve this, one can rely on post-capture corrections—though these often degrade fine details—or use a tilt-shift lens, or better yet, a technical camera with rise and shift movements. I prefer to minimize post-production; for me, the joy lies in making images, not in sitting behind a computer screen.
The level of detail achievable with a medium-format digital back paired with large-format lenses adapted to technical cameras is truly astounding. Of course, as with everything in life, there are trade-offs—chief among them, the inability to use such setups handheld. Yet, I see that as a virtue rather than a limitation. It slows me down, makes me more deliberate, and allows me to compose with greater intention. Few examples of images, stiched vertical panormas, I made this morning are below:
As the sun rises the whole world lights up!
The Sun Never Says
Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,
“You owe Me.”
Look what happens with
A love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky.
HAFIZ
