Photoessay: Tokyo nights

November 30, 2012 by

I love shooting at night in Japan for many reasons – firstly, the city never sleeps so there’s always something interesting to photograph; secondly, the quality and layout of the light itself is interesting – their designers obviously pay a lot of attention to this; finally, it’s easy to achieve high image quality. There’s simply so much light it’s rarely necessary to venture into the higher ISO regions, so you can actually get some tonally very rich images covering a large dynamic range with little noise and reasonable shutter speeds. It was better in the pre-Fukushima days when electricity was abundant in Japan; I remember being surprised that in late 2008 I could seriously shoot ISO 200 at night, handheld.

Needless to say, on my last trip, I did plenty of roaming the streets after dark. Here is a collection of my favourite images in that theme. Enjoy! MT

This set was shot with an Olympus OM-D with the 12/2 and 45/1.8 lenses, and a Sony RX100.

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Comments

  1. Amryl Malek says:
    December 3, 2012 at 8:10 AM

    Beautiful images of Tokyo…btw in relation to your previous post (about photography in Malaysia)…..I don’t want to take photos in the dark in KL……I just can’t imagine what would happen

  2. [Gm] says:
    December 1, 2012 at 11:38 AM

    Ough… how I miss Tokyo, and how I miss taking photos there. If you have the chance, I would suggest to take photos at the train stations. Those are my favorite places to shoot. Interesting people, interesting places.

  3. Jorge Balarin says:
    December 1, 2012 at 2:41 AM

    Thank’s for the post. Once I was in Tokyo and seeing your photos I got good memories.

  4. wahyudi tan says:
    November 30, 2012 at 11:11 PM

    Mr. MT, greets from Indonesia:D Have you ever considered shooting some high fashion photography? (as personal assignment perhaps?) i would like to see your take in that kind of photography. Your kind of style meets high fashion stuff make me wonder will u take your commercial or street style approach of photography..

    well this is my first time commenting in your blog after all this time being silent reader:)
    PS: u should come to Jakarta;)

  5. Andre Ouellet says:
    November 30, 2012 at 9:48 PM

    I looked closely at each of these photos. I stayed in Japan in April 2012, which explains why they provoke in me strong feelings. I think they are so authentic Japan today. Congratulations.

  6. Rexlin Victor says:
    November 30, 2012 at 9:00 PM

    Beautiful shots!!

  7. bob says:
    November 30, 2012 at 12:45 PM

    Beautiful collection!
    Thanks

  8. Joseph says:
    November 30, 2012 at 12:22 PM

    Great shots !

  9. Eric says:
    November 30, 2012 at 12:16 PM

    Wonderful Pictures Ming!

  10. Scott says:
    November 30, 2012 at 12:10 PM

    Thanks for sharing – very nice pictures. I particularly like the taxi roof shot. Makes me want to visit Japan so much!

  11. justinrian says:
    November 30, 2012 at 12:03 PM

    These are truly beautiful photos! Makes me want to go to Tokyo so badly!

  12. justinrian says:
    November 30, 2012 at 12:03 PM

    Reblogged this on Justin Rian and commented:
    I really want to visit Tokyo!

Trackbacks

  1. Photoessay: Tokyo nights | Sculpting in light | Scoop.it says:
    December 1, 2012 at 11:04 PM

    […] I love shooting at night in Japan for many reasons – firstly, the city never sleeps so there’s always something interesting to photograph; secondly, the quality and layout of the light itself is interesting – their designers obviously pay a lot of attention to this; finally, it’s easy to achieve high image quality. There’s simply so much light it’s rarely necessary to venture into the higher ISO regions, so you can actually get some tonally very rich images covering a large dynamic range with little noise and reasonable shutter speeds. It was better in the pre-Fukushima days when electricity was abundant in Japan; I remember being surprised that in late 2008 I could seriously shoot ISO 200 at night, handheld.  […]