Couple photoshoot

Who it suits. The couple photoshoot is for two people travelling together, whether you met last year or have been married for twenty: pictures of the two of you in a place you chose, directed lightly so you look like yourselves. If the trip is your honeymoon, that page plans around the trip itself. Here the first question is simpler — what do you want the pictures to look like? Most couples land on one of three styles.

City evening. Ginza suits couples who would rather look like themselves on a good night out than in a costume: on weekend afternoons Chuo-dori closes to cars from noon until 5 pm from October to March and 6 pm from April to September, so on a winter Saturday the closing time and dusk coincide. Shibuya works the other way round, between seven and eight in the morning, when two people are easy to see on the crossing. Asakusa gives the temple by daylight and Azuma Bridge, with the Skytree across the river, at blue hour.

Old Japan. In Gion we photograph couples at dusk rather than dawn, when lamps come on behind the teahouse screens along the Shirakawa and the lanterns light up on Yasaka Shrine’s dance stage, keeping to public streets, since the private lanes off Hanamikoji have banned photography since 2024. Nikko gives cedar avenues and the vermilion Shinkyo bridge before the coaches arrive at about 10:00, and in Kanazawa the Kazuemachi teahouses face the Asano River as their lanterns come on.

Landscape. At Kawaguchiko the session is built to get the wide frame with Mt Fuji in the first ten minutes, while the summit is clear, and then walk the north shore. On Miyajima, at low tide, you can walk across the sand to the foot of the Otorii; the hour comes from the tide table for your date. Arashiyama is best late in the day by the river, as the day-trippers head back, and Nara’s deer lawns are calmest in the first hours after sunrise.

How the session runs. Most couples have never been photographed together, and the direction assumes it. We keep you moving — walking, turning towards each other, one of you leading the other by the hand — and take the frames between instructions. Public affection is low-key in Japan, so the closer moments are kept to lanes and riverbanks rather than shrine grounds.

What to wear. Coordinate rather than match: two colours from the same family, in plain fabrics, photograph better than identical outfits or busy prints. Kimono is a popular choice in Kyoto and Asakusa: add it for $55 per person including dressing, allow 30 to 60 minutes at the rental shop before the session, and expect to return it the same day, usually before 6 pm.

Light changes the mood more than the place. The hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset give soft light almost everywhere. Sunset in Kyoto runs from about 4:45 pm in December to 7:15 pm in late June, so the start time moves by more than two hours across the year.

Rain, extras and what is included. Light rain suits the city styles: wet streets in Ginza or Gion reflect the lights. You receive 15 edited photos in a private online gallery within 3 days, and travel within the city booked is included. An extra hour ($150) links two moods — Asakusa’s temple and then its river, say; hair and makeup is $100 and a short vertical reel $120.