Shibuya Crossing; People in Motion

The Shibuya area of Tokyo is a photographer’s dream! At the famous Shibuya Crossing, all lanes of traffic in this large intersection are periodically stopped so nup to 3000 pedestrians can cross from as many as 12 different directions to inundate the entire intersection. The crossing was inaugurated in 1973, and was featured in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Olympics Closing Ceremony to promote the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Like much of Tokyo, the Shibuya Crossing’s adjacent buildings are replete with lighted signage and neon. I wanted to capture the interesting beauty of the buildings, but yet show the mass of moving humanity crossing the intersection. To accomplish this, I used my iPhone Pro 16, set it on Live View, and then after the capture converted it to Long Exposure. Thus, I was able to effectively capture my desired result: the interesting buildings and the blur of humanity. The one face in semi-focus toward the bottom of the photograph gives it almost a LeRoy Neiman effect. Post-processing in Lightroom, Photoshop, On1, and Luminar.