Portraits 2015 | A Trip to a Korean Photo Studio in an Underground Mall

I have been wanting to get our portraits taken ever since we first visited the underground mall in Daegu. Waaaay back in January or February I told Sly that I wanted to have some cheesy photos taken, Korean style, for our yearly portraits. We don’t usually have our photos taken professionally or in a studio setting, but we do like to set up the tripod at least once a year to take a more ‘formal’ photo.

In Korea, having your photo taken in a studio is extremely popular and there are varying levels of photo studio. The most basic studios with simple backdrops can be found in underground malls. The more elaborate studios take up entire buildings and have all sorts of props and crazy backdrops and scenes.

We chose one of the many basic underground mall photo studios near the subway and, keeping in accordance with Korean trends, we dressed alike. Or at least as alike as we could. Initially we felt self-conscious dressed as twinsies but once we arrived at the studio we realized we didn’t take it far enough. For whatever reason the thing to do here, especially if you’re a couple, is dress EXACTLY alike, right down to the shoes. In the studio waiting rooms every single couple or group of friends wore matching outfits. Every. Single. One. 

We chose one of the less crowded studios and after about a five minute wait we were asked to sit in front of a computer to pick our “concept.”  Basically this entailed us scrolling through hundreds of photos of other couples with various backgrounds and themes to decide which one we liked best. The ‘concepts’ ranged from super hipster (playing a guitar on a shag carpet) to modern (white wall backdrop with heart illustrations photoshopped between the couple) to really romantic (couple lying on mattress/lap/window sill/carpet kissing). We decided to go with a Korean cutesy/borderline prom photo concept.

Once our concepts were chosen we were given the chance to freshen up hair and make-up (I should have taken advantage of one of the brushes) and then we were ushered into one of the studios. Unlike photo studios in an American mall there were no cameras on tripods, strange pyramid-like seating platforms, or a set number of poses. This was no JC Penney experience! A cute girl photographer suggested certain poses based on our concept but we were free to (awkwardly) do whatever, interact with any of their props, etc. All the while she snapped our photo, catching both posed and candid moments with a lot of moments of us being silly in between. Most of our photos were taken in front of a simple white backdrop but we took a few in front of turquoise wall and a few with reindeer antlers since it was the holiday season.

After about 20 minutes our session was over. The photographer uploaded the files to another computer where we sat down and picked the ones we liked. Honestly we were expecting to walk out of there with one, maaaybe two, photos but there were a good number that we liked. Some were way too goofy to see the light of day but others made us smile either because they totally reminded us of high school prom/senior photos or because the photographer actually caught a moment that we would have never been able to capture ourselves.

This one is my fave

We picked out six photos of nearly 100, paid for our photos and sitting fee and then were told to come back in an hour while they photoshopped/cleaned up the photos and printed them. Photoshop? This made us a little bit nervous. When scrolling through various concepts we noticed that many of the photos had been photoshopped to the point where it looked as if the photo had been taken through a lens covered in Vaseline. I don’t know what kind of smoothing tool they used but some of the portraits were ridiculously over-edited. Maybe they were going for a vampire doll concept? Since we were embracing the whole Korean couple photo studio thing anyway we just let them do their thing.

After lunch at Wild Sushi we returned to the studio, now absolutely packed with people and about 900 degrees inside, to pick up our photos. They were still putting the finishing touches on us in Photoshop which thankfully only included light editing. They removed some of my hair frizz, I think they made my cheeks rosier, and they filled in Sly’s eyebrows. I also think they made our faces whiter and bumped up the white levels and contrast of our photos. Overall we still looked like us.

Though we’re not really photo studio type people we really had a lot of fun having our photos taken! It was easy, cheap, and painless — and the pictures weren’t too shabby either! No wonder so many Koreans do this!

Next time we (I) want to dress in matching over sized Donald Duck sweatshirts with rolled up jeans topped with a huge bow in my hair (another popular concept). Or maybe we’ll try one of the nicer studios where they have sets that look as if you’re playing a piano at a Parisian cafe. Or maybe we’ll get traditional hanbok photos taken with an imperial palace backdrop…

So many options, so little time…

DETAILS

Daily Studio | LOCATION: Underground mall at Banwoldang Station. After you come out of the subway at Banwoldang look for Exits 4 and 5.  Locate exit 4 and instead of going up the stairs to the outside, turn right down the hall where there is a Beyond store. Down this hallway there are several larger photo studios. “Daily Studio” will be on your right if coming from this direction. | DESCRIPTION: Photo studio with multiple ‘sets’ and backdrops ranging from romantic to modern to tradition to fake house interiors. After you choose a concept the photographer take multiple photos and lead you through some poses that support your concept. The photographer will be taking pix the entire time so it felt like a hybrid portrait studio and boutique studio experience. Afterwards you select the photos you want to print, they edit and photoshop the photos, and in about an hour you return to pick up the photos. The entire thing maybe took 1-1.5 hrs including the 1hr photo edit time (perfect time to grab lunch). The thing to do is go with friends or your significant other, and dress alike! No reservations needed, just show up though be prepared to wait if you come after noon on a weekend. Like most things in Korea, if you start early you have a good shot of beating crowds. NOTE: when we went only one person — one of the photo editors — spoke English, though we actually didn’t really need it. It was kind of easy to figure out and understand what was happening/how much stuff cost even when people communicated with (me) in Korean.  | COST:  9,000 KRW per person sitting fee then you pay per photo. The more photos you buy the less the additional photos cost — for example the first 2 photos are like 10,oooKRW, a 3rd photo is 9,000KRW, 4th is 8,000 etc. For each pose you choose you get two sets of 3×5 and 2×3 though you can get larger sizes and packages as well. We purchased 6 photos. Along with our sitting fee it came out to 66,000KRW or $56. In addition to the printed photos you can download the digital files (this took me a long time to figure out) online via their naver site under this heading: 커플사진 or if you google translate the page, under the “Larger Sample Photos” heading. Click on that link and look for your date and name. | VERDICT: Fun! Definitely a must if you come to Korea as these types of studios can be found everywhere!