Hongdae self-photo studio friendship shoot: Heukbaekgongan

Whenever I meet up with friends we take tons of photos, but somehow the two of us barely ever end up in a proper shot together. It's always selfies or something a stranger snapped for us, so this time I decided to actually set a date and get a real friendship photo with my friend. That's how we ended up at Heukbaekgongan, a self-photo studio in Hongdae.

Bottom line up front: I loved the final photos, but honestly what I loved even more was the whole process of laughing and goofing around together while we shot them. 💕

How to get to Heukbaekgongan, a self-photo studio in Hongdae

Heukbaekgongan is on the 3rd floor of a building at 50 Eoulmadang-ro 5-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul, a 4-minute walk from Hapjeong Station Exit 3. Just make sure you watch for the entrance when you first go.

Like in the photo, you head up the stairs between the buildings, and there's a big sign outside reading 'Self studio Heukbaekgongan 3F,' so it wasn't hard to find once we spotted it.

Just follow the stairs up to the 3rd floor.

• 📍 Location: 3rd floor, 50 Eoulmadang-ro 5-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul (4-minute walk from Hapjeong Station Exit 3)
• ⏰ Hours: 12:00–20:00
• 🚗 Parking: nearby (paid) public parking lot — Hapjeong roadside public parking lot

What are the interior and waiting area at Heukbaekgongan like?

The inside of Heukbaekgongan is done up mostly in white and wood tones. Walking in, the space was cleaner and more tidy than I expected, which made a great first impression.

There were plants, photos, mirrors, and other little touches scattered around, so it felt less like a photo studio and more like dropping into a small design studio.

There were tons of actual customer photos pinned up on the walls, which was handy for getting pose ideas before shooting.

My friend and I had fun going 'should we try this pose too?' while browsing the wall of photos, haha.

Hair prep before the shoot: Heukbaekgongan even has a curling iron

Heukbaekgongan has a separate area with a mirror where you can fix your hair, and there's even a hair straightener set up. At self-photo studios like this, the prep space matters to me just as much as the shooting room itself.

Right before a photoshoot your bangs are never sitting right or your hair is sticking up somewhere. 😂 So having a prep space like this was such a relief.

There were combs, hair rollers, tissues, wet wipes, and other little items for a quick touch-up before shooting.

My friend and I took turns at the mirror doing one last hair fix before heading in. There's also a separate waiting area, so we could get ready without feeling rushed.

Is 20 minutes enough in Room A Cinema Blue?

We picked Room A Cinema Blue at Heukbaekgongan, with a 20-minute shooting slot. 20 minutes turned out to be plenty. Photoshoots get tiring if they drag on too long — this one wrapped up right around the point where we were just starting to feel it, haha.

This time we went with upper-body shots rather than full-body, so our expressions would really show.

Once we were inside the shooting room, the camera and lighting were already properly set up, and you just press the shutter button yourself to take the photos. Since it's a self-shoot with no one watching us, it felt a lot less pressured.

Of course we weren't natural from the start, lol. At first we both stood there stiffly going 'wait, what do we even do?' 'this is so awkward!' 😂 But after a few shots we started joking around and cracking up, and by the end we were basically just goofing off together while shooting.

Which Heukbaekgongan props work best for friendship photos?

Heukbaekgongan has a variety of props — big ribbons, headbands, crowns, bunny ears, glasses, and more. One tricky thing about self-photos is not knowing what to do with your hands, but here there were plenty of props to work with.

It was fun switching props one at a time throughout the shoot. We started off shooting pretty demurely, but the moment we started picking up props the whole mood loosened up, lol. If you're doing a friendship photoshoot, I highly recommend using the props — your expressions and poses come out so much more natural.

(Oh! From our experience, if it's two girlfriends shooting together, the big ribbon headband and the red balloon prop photograph especially cute, haha.)

The real highlight: the timelapse video 🎥

My favorite thing about Heukbaekgongan was that they leave you with a timelapse of the whole shoot. At first I was only thinking about the final photos, but watching the timelapse afterward turned out to be really fun.

It captured everything — us shuffling around awkwardly at the start, figuring out poses, and then laughing together after each shot. The finished photos are nice, but having a record of all the faces and laughter that went into getting that one good shot made it feel like something I could look back on and go 'oh right, we had so much fun that day.'

Personally, because of this timelapse it felt less like I'd just walked away with some photos and more like I'd recorded the actual time I spent with my friend. 💕

Photo selection and prints: how many do you take home?

The selection time is 15 minutes, and I ended up with 2 final cuts (4x6 size) printed into 4 photos total, split two apiece with my friend. Plenty~ haha.

I didn't notice it while shooting, but once we started going through the shots on the monitor one by one, it was 'whoa, this one came out great!' 'what is this face, lol' — cracking up all over again.

We also got a cinema poster cut and mini 4-cut photos for leaving a Naver review.

They have a totally different feel from the big prints and were nice to keep as small keepsakes.

Heukbaekgongan for photos with a friend: everything in one place 💕

We take so many photos on our phones these days, but actually standing in front of proper lighting and a camera with a friend hits differently.

What stood out about Heukbaekgongan especially was that it's not just about walking away with finished photos —

it's the whole experience: getting ready, picking props, shooting together, and having the timelapse capture all of it. And because it's self-shooting with just the two of us in the room, our expressions kept getting more natural as time went on.

Even if it's not some special occasion, if you want to make a lasting friendship photo with someone, a self-photo shoot like this makes for a pretty great memory.

A place where the day of shooting stuck with me more than the photos themselves. I bet when we look back at these later, the first thing we'll remember is how awkward and giggly we were. 😆