From Shoot to Edit: How I Created This Cinematic Photo

Recently I remembered how I used to be into making movies.
It’s tough to make a movie, but I thought, at least I can take a photo that feels like a movie scene. That’s how this shot happened.

When I posted it on Instagram, a few people commented that they felt “Wong Kar-wai vibes.”
Honestly, I didn’t set out to shoot in his style at all. It’s just that the day I took those photos was insanely humid, and as I tried to capture that heavy, sticky atmosphere, the images naturally ended up feeling a bit like Wong Kar-wai.

Anyway, this time I’m going to share exactly which camera and lens I used, plus every detail of how I edited it in Lightroom. Hope you enjoy it till the end!

🚨 NEWS: Zine & Photography Event on Saturday, September 27

Planet of Zines (@planetofzines), known for their zine pop-up events, is teaming up with FAR EAST DARKROOM for a 1-DAY event called “MIXTAPE” on Saturday, September 27 at KATA gallery inside LIQUIDROOM in Ebisu, Tokyo.

LIQUIDROOM is a legendary live music venue that has energized the scene with a wide range of artists—from big names to fresh new talent. Since moving to Ebisu, it’s become even more of a hotspot with the addition of Time Out Café & Diner and KATA gallery.

There’ll also be a live DJ performance, so come enjoy the perfect mix of music, photography, and zines!

📌 Event Details

🎨 Event: MIXTAPE by POZ/FED
📅 Date & Time: Saturday, September 27, 2025 / 14:00–21:00
📍 Venue: LIQUIDROOM - KATA (Google map)
🚉 Access: 3-min walk from JR Ebisu Station (West Exit)
🎟️ Admission: Free

📸 Behind the Shoot: The Camera and Lens I Used

Alright, back to this photo.

First, let’s talk about the camera and lens. I used a Nikon D7100 — the very first DSLR I bought about 10 years ago. These days, if you check Japanese secondhand sites, you’ll find it going for around $200, a pretty cheap camera.

As for the lens, I shot with a 20mm.
It’s my favorite focal length, and for the past five years or so I’ve been shooting almost exclusively with 20mm lenses.

This particular one is manual focus only, but with 20mm it’s easy to shoot using zone focusing, so I don’t have to waste time adjusting focus. That makes it a perfect lens for street photography.

📟 Behind the Edit: How I Work in Lightroom

Next, let me show you a behind-the-scenes look at how I edit in Lightroom.

Here’s what the raw file looks like straight out of the camera. The settings were ISO 1000, shutter speed 1/160, aperture f/3.5, and the white balance was set manually to 3700K.

The photo itself is a bit dark, but it already has a cool vibe. So first, I started by adjusting the brightness and other basic settings.

By the way, I actually stumbled across this spot while walking around with the model, Miho. The shape of the window, the curves of the wall, and even the color of the stairs were all just perfect.

I knew that shooting here would make the photo look super cinematic, so that’s exactly what we did.

Now, about the actual color editing.

Since the staircase had warm tones, I shifted the overall look toward green. This approach is called a complementary color scheme.
As many of you probably know, a complementary color scheme uses two colors that sit directly opposite each other on the color wheel.

From there, I fine-tuned the colors by making slight adjustments to the shadows and highlights.

By the way, I’ve never formally studied design, and my digital photo editing is completely self-taught.

I’m sure there are better ways to do things, so if you have any advice, I’d love to hear it in the comments (you can post them on the web version of this article, not by email).

And lastly, I added a touch of grain — kind of like seasoning with a bit of salt and pepper at the end. Haha.

Finally, to give it a more cinematic feel, I cropped it to a 16x9 ratio.

Here’s what it looks like compared to the before-and-after.

When I look at this photo while playing some cinematic music, it feels just like a movie — I’m really happy with how it turned out.

Since we’re at it, let me show you some of the other shots from the session too.

That’s it for this week’s edition.

Thanks so much for reading all the way through! If you’d like more like this, get it straight to your inbox by subscribing. See you next time!

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