Relaxing Sunset Street Photography In Tokyo, Japan
During my time in Tokyo, I spent a lot of time doing street photography at night. There were also some days when the weather was mostly overcast. As a result, I didn’t do as much street photography during golden hour as I would like.
However, as I would make my way to certain locations at night, I found myself stopping to take photos during sunset at different alleyways and certain wards in the city as I was waiting for nighttime.
In this blog post, I’ll be sharing a selection of my favorite sunset photos during my time in Tokyo. All of these photos were taken on the Sony a7R III with the Sigma 35mm and 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART prime lenses. The photos were also edited in Adobe Lightroom Classic.
SHIBUYA HIKARIE OBSERVATION DECK
During my first full day in Tokyo, I visited the Shibuya Hikarie Observation Deck to get a nice bird’s eye view of the Shibuya crossing and the high-rise buildings surrounding the area. Because it was my first time in this area, I wanted to stay throughout golden hour and into blue hour so I could capture some of the night lights.
When I first arrived at the observation deck, I was impressed with how large the room was and from how many different angles I was able to see the incredible cityscape of Shibuya. At this time, you could see plenty of cars driving by, overpasses, high-rise buildings, and billboards featuring all different colors from the bird’s eye view.
Although it was fairly overcast during this time, the sun would peek through the hazy clouds every now again and you could catch glimpses of a beautiful golen tone falling over the steel buildings.
I wish that I had used a filter to get rid of the glare you can see from the window just to clean up the shot a bit more, but the glare is a fairly authentic snapshot of my first moments at the Observation Deck.
SUNSET ALLEYWAYS IN TOKYO, JAPAN
I have spoken about this a number of times, but I love the way that the light from the sunset spills into the different alleyways and narrow streets of Tokyo. The light will sometimes hit spots on the street, or certain parts of the buildings. The effect produces a beautiful contrast of light and shadow.
The alleyways in certain parts of Tokyo (like Sumida City) can be vary narrow. As a result, you might find only one or two subjects will be able to pass by the road. This can make for a beautiful composition by framing your subject with the adjacent buildings and paired with a lens like the 85mm, isolate the subject perfectly and still highlight the environment.
If you’re looking to do street photography at sunset in Tokyo, I would try to plan out a different location each day of your trip. You’ll find that some locations get really crowded during sunset, while others are almost completely isolated during the evening.
SUNSET ON THE BRIDGE NEAR ASAKUSA
I took the photo below on my last full day in Tokyo and I had never taken a proper sunset photo of the bridge I would constantly pass through on my way to Asakusa. There were some beautiful clouds in the sky but the sun had already started to set over the buildings, so this was taken a bit closer to blue hour.
I actually decided to create a few masks in editing and I lowered the temperature of the sky. I’m pretty happy with how the final image turned out. It doesn’t have the golden color that I usually bring to my sunset photos, but I think it works more by contrasting a colder temperature of the sky with the warm colors of the buildings.
FINAL WORDS
Street photography at sunset in a big city like Tokyo can be difficult because at this time, there still might be a fair amount of people walking through the area and with the high-rise buildings in certain wards like Shibuya or Shinjuku, the sun can be blocked out for most of the evening.
Additionally, unpredictable overcast weather can stop you from taking golden hour street photography images altogether. One of the reasons why I wanted to stay in Tokyo for 7 days was because I wanted as many opportunities to photograph Tokyo in different locations with as many different weather conditions as possible.
The next time I visit Japan, I’d love to do more street photography at sunset. But I’m still happy with the golden hour images I was able to capture.
Thank you for reading and until next time!
Explore my website further:
Morning Tokyo Street Photography with the Sigma 85mm f1.4 DG DN ART
Night Street Photography in Tokyo Japan with the Sigma 85mm DG DN ART Lens
