Night Street Photography in Tokyo Japan with the Sigma 85mm DG DN ART Lens

 
Tokyo restaurant at night with paper lanterns in the alleyway
 

My passion for travel photography started a few years ago when I would walk around Downtown Los Angeles and practice street photography. A few months in, I purchased the Sony a7R III camera body and Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART prime lens. I never really used this lens for street photography in the beginning, but I grew fond of the lens after years of practice.

In April, I visited Tokyo, Japan for the first time and had the opportunity to do street photography at night in the city. Carrying the 85mm prime lens as I traveled around Tokyo at night proved to be a huge benefit. I could capture sharp city photos with a low aperture, isolate certain subjects, and experiment with the depth of field for multiple photos. 

In this blog post, I’d like to share my experience with the Sigma 85mm lens for specifically street photography at night in Tokyo during my week-long stay in Japan.

All photos in this blog were taken with the Sony a7R III and edited in Adobe Lightroom Classic.

 
Glowing neon red bridge sign in Shinjuku, Tokyo Japan
 
 

A GREAT PRIME LENS FOR STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

If you’re going to do street photography with only one prime lens, you’ll want to use a lens that is light enough that you won’t mind carrying it on your camera body for hours but doesn’t compromise on quality. Although this Sigma 85mm lens doesn’t have image stabilization, the sharp image quality the lens delivers, along with its wide aperture gives you plenty of support that you can still produce great photos even at night.

Another great quality about this Sigma lens is that it does a great job with autofocus - catching subjects that quickly move through the frame. Moments in street photography happen incredibly quickly and you might miss your shot if you’re not fast enough.

 
People walking on the street and stopping at a restaurant at night
Businesspeople in Tokyo sitting down at a restuarant at night and eating
 
 
 

FOCUS AREA SETTINGS FOR STREET PHOTOGRAPHY AT NIGHT

When it comes to focus area settings, I usually swap between a Wide Focus Area, where I leave it up to the camera, and a Large Flexible Focus Area, when I want to have more control over what I’m focusing on.

For street photography at night, I will sometimes adjust the aperture to be as wide as f/1.8 or wider. The 85mm lens does a great job with compression and foreground-background separation. Using a Flexible focus area allows me to choose what I want to focus on.

In the photo below, I wanted to get a photo of the bus in focus and keep the people walking in front of the frame out of focus. This photo was taken with a 1.4 aperture, which allowed enough light in my sensor to keep the shutter speed at a reasonable 1/200 sec.

You can also use manual focus to achieve this look, but with such a wide aperture and in a fast-moving setting, there’s a chance you’ll miss the shot if you’re trying to get perfect focus on the bus.

 
Pedestrians walking on the crosswalk at night as a Tokyo bus out of service is parked behind them
Passenger gets in the Tokyo bus at night
 
 
 

APERTURES FOR NIGHT STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

I travelled to a variety of different neighborhoods and wards in Tokyo for night street photography. The city offers a lot of incredible vibrant signs that light up at night. You already end up having light sources available without having to push your camera’s limits.

However, having a camera like Sony, which offers excellent low-light capabilities is useful for night photos. The Sony a7R III paired with a Sigma lens that can go as wide as 1.4 allowed me to properly light a lot of photos properly and to experiment with different apertures.

I didn’t mind bumping up the ISO and keeping a fast enough shutter speed if it means I can experiment with different apertures. When you’re out doing street photography, changing the aperture and focus point is a great way to offer different perspectives in your photo without having to travel far.

Although I love using my Sigma 85mm lens for my Tokyo trip, I didn’t feel like I needed to go as wide as 1.4 to capture sharp travel and street photos at night simply to let more light into the sensor. Instead, I would travel to new and interesting locations, try to focus on available light sources (like the indoor lights of a store and neon street signs) and bump up the ISO in order to get the raw photo properly exposed.

 
 
People eating at a restaurant in Tokyo at night with bikes parked around the area
 
 

COMPOSITION IDEAS FOR 85MM NIGHT STREET PHOTOS

I avoided the 85mm lens for street photography at first because I thought it was too zoomed in and I wanted to capture as much action as possible. But as I got more experience with travel photography, I loved experimenting with different compositions with the Sigma prime lens.

I found a lot of neighboring storefronts that were open late in Tokyo wards like Shibuya and Shinjuku. One of my favorite ways to capture street photography at night was to stand on the opposite side of a sidewalk facing a storefront - and wait for someone to pass by. The light from the store acts as a great backlight and you can get the person walking by to be a silhouette.

In general, I think this kind of composition works better with a horizontal orientation - especially when you have an 85mm prime lens and you can’t change your focal length. Otherwise, you end up getting a lot of street pavement that could be a bit distracting.

I also loved photographing the different paper lanterns that are spread around the city. In the photo below, I chose to put the paper lantern as the focus point of the image. I personally think it makes the photo look more cinematic.

 
Man walking past Tokyo restaurant at night in Sumida City
 
 
Red paper lantern hanging at a restaurant with patrons talking and sitting down outside at night
 
 

PHOTOGRAPHING BUSY DISTRICTS IN TOKYO

It can be challenging to focus on a particular subject when you have many people walking in and out of frame. When I use my Sigma 35mm prime lens in street photography, I’m expecting to photograph the bustle of busy wards and districts in Tokyo. However with an 85mm, I generally try not to capture too many subjects in a photo as it can look somewhat messy in an image that I want to be more closed in.

As I mentioned in the previous point, sometimes I focus on a particular subject like a paper lantern or a sign, and have the people walking by out of focus.

Otherwise, my best recommendation is to simply wait until one person walks into the scene. In a busy area with a vibrant nightlife like Shinjuku, you might have to wait awhile to get a clean shot.

 
Pedestrians walking by bright yellow signs at night in Shinjuku Tokyo
Pedestrians walk by withglowing neon signs in the back in Tokyo Japan
 
 

Shinjuku vs. Shibuya: Street Photography at Night

Shinjuku and Shibuya are two incredibly popular districts in Tokyo that have a lot of action going on at night. As such, it makes sense that these two wards would be popular destinations for street photographers to visit at night.

I only went to Shinjuku and Shibuya a couple of times at night during my week-trip and enjoyed my time in both locations. From my personal experience, it felt like Shinjuku was a lot more packed with tourists in smaller spaces, whereas Shibuya felt a lot more spread out.

I think I had an easier time using the 85mm lens in Shibuya and in even smaller wards like Sumida City where I had more space to step back and capture different types of photos compared to Shinjuku.

Both districts are great places to visit as a street photographer if you are looking to capture images with bustling action in a metropolitan part of Tokyo and I’d love to try and experiment with the 85mm lens more in Shinjuku. But from my first experience, I think the Sigma 35mm lens served me well in Shinjuku for capturing people and moments compared to the 85mm lens.

 
Pedestrians walking by Tokyo bar at night in Sumida City with orange and blue lit up signs
 
 

FINAL WORDS

Years after picking up a camera and getting to travel to different countries, I can still say that street photography is my favorite genre. It has been instrumental in helping me learn what I know and I continue to grow as a photographer because of how fast-paced it can be.

I feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to visit these districts at night as a street photographer, but I hope to explore other less busy spots around Tokyo and Japan as a whole.

I hope this blog post will help you see the 85mm focal length as a diverse telephoto lens that can capture some great street photography and travel photos at night.

Thank you for reading and until next time.

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