Analyzing Photography: Back Alley Sunrise In Tokyo
TAKING THE PHOTO
I took this photo on my first morning after arriving in Tokyo. I woke up about 30 minutes before sunrise to explore a bit of the city while no one was out. While exploring the bridges and intersections in the area, I came across this back alley shortly after the sun started to rise.
I lucked out in not having to stay at this spot for long before a subject entered the frame and I captured this photo. Since I was anticipating a subject to come into the shot, I had my 85mm Sigma lens attached to my Sony a7R III because I wanted to capture a subject prominently in the frame without being too close.
I was very fortunate to come across this back alley at the time that I did because the subject walked perfectly between some of the leading lines caused by the sunrise. The subject is also centered between the white line and the small slice of shade facing the shops on the left hand side of the image.
Another interesting part of the framing of this image is the bundle of wires streamed across the different buildings. The sun glistening on the metal wires caused a bit of overexposure, but I don't think it's too noticeable or distracts from the overall image. This caused for slight chromatic aberration, but removing the issue in Lightroom was pretty simple since there is a lens profile available for the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART lens.
PHOTO EDITING
The raw photo already had plenty of contrast because of the subject's black outfit sticking out in the bright sunlight.
When it comes to photo editing, I usually try to avoid making drastic alterations from the raw image in the beginning. I warmed the temperature and raised the vibrance only by a little bit. I avoided any changes to the saturation's intensity because the sunlight was already strong in the raw photo. I felt any increase to the saturation would have made the orange tones in the image overpowering.
In fact, I lowered the saturation of the yellows in the HSL slider to -66, and I decreased the luminance of yellow a little bit as well. I got rid of a lot of the blues and greens in the photo because I felt that they clashed with the warm colors in the image.
I added a slight vignette around the image to draw the view closer into the frame. I like how the subject was framed in the original shot, so I didn't want to do much cropping aside from straightening the photo.
FINAL THOUGHTS
My trip to Tokyo was incredibly memorable and being able to capture a photo I’m proud of on my first full day when arriving at the city was an amazing way to start off the trip. If you’re interested, I have a Tokyo photo gallery that I’d love for you to check out, and I may analyze more photos from that trip.
