Hongdae self photo studio for 34-week maternity photos: Areye Studio

I visited Areye Studio, a self-studio in Hongdae. I really went back and forth on whether to get maternity photos done at a professional studio or shoot them myself, but I figured doing it myself would let us relax more. So I tried a self-studio! Now that I'm 34 weeks along and my belly has really popped, I think the self-shoot turned out great. Here's my review of Areye Studio, a Hongdae self-studio!

Where is Areye Studio, and what are its hours?

Areye Studio is a Hongdae self-studio located at 188-1 Donggyo-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea, on the basement level, open 24 hours a day, every day of the year. One parking spot is available.

Areye Studio is super, super close to Exit 1 of Hongik University Station, and since one parking spot is available, anyone who needs to park should ask ahead before visiting! ◡̈

Head down to the basement level and you'll find Areye Studio! Since it's open 24 hours, every day of the year, it was even more convenient to use 𖤐

Room A or Room B: which one should you book?

Areye Studio is split into Room A and Room B. Room A is a white cyclorama rental space, and Room B is the self-shoot space.

This is Room A — a white cyclorama rental space where photographers use their own equipment to shoot things like model profiles and brand lookbooks!

This is Room B, where self-photography is possible. I've been to quite a few self-studios, but this is honestly the biggest one I've seen. The space is so spacious you can use it in all kinds of ways, love it ꔛ

What's in the fitting room: outfits, props and flowers

Areye Studio's fitting space had a large mirror, lighting, a hair dryer, and a curling iron, so touching up makeup was totally doable. Simple outfits and props were also on hand.

The fitting space was set up spaciously too, with a big mirror and lighting, plus a hair dryer and curling iron all ready for touch-ups.

And simple outfits like these were also ready to use!

There were tons of props too, which was great to work with — really, everything was set up so you could just show up empty-handed and shoot! ꔛ

From here you could shoot while watching a live preview, and even finish selecting photos all in the same spot!

How to swap backdrops and pick an outfit color to match

Areye Studio has a wide range of backdrops ready to go, from white to color, and if you ask the owner mid-shoot, they'll swap it right away. We started with white and switched to pink.

Like this, the backdrops came in a variety of options from white to color, and if you ask the owner during the shoot, they come right over and swap it out! We started shooting with white, then switched to pink. The white backdrop was clean and I liked it, but since we'd brought white outfits, we didn't stand out well against it. So we switched to pink midway, and since it was a soft light pink, it turned out better than expected! If you're planning a shoot, I'd recommend thinking about the backdrop color when choosing your outfits 𖤐

And as I mentioned, since the space is so big, we could shoot everything from full-body to close-up shots in lots of variety. There were several chairs available too, so you could shoot in all kinds of concepts!

The 34-week maternity shoot: 30 minutes, then selection and prints

At Areye Studio, you shoot for 30 minutes, spend 15 minutes selecting photos, and then after about a 10-minute wait, the owner retouches and prints the photos for you.

Normally my husband and I barely take any time to pick photos — even our wedding photos, we finished selecting super fast. But this time there were so many photos we liked that selecting really took a while. Still, the raw shots were plenty good on their own, so I was satisfied ◡̈♥

I forgot to bring flowers, but they had artificial flowers ready, so no problem at all! Just holding flowers completely changes the mood of a photo ◡̈♥

And we brought our own sunglasses to try a fun concept shot too!

Even in the unedited shots, my skin looked really clear and smooth, which I loved! That's probably the power of the lighting, right? ꔛ

Is a self photo studio good enough for maternity photos?

I really agonized over how to shoot our maternity photos, but I think doing it self-studio style at Areye Studio was the right call! Shooting in such a relaxed atmosphere meant we could try way more expressions and poses. And 30 minutes was more than enough time, so we could shoot at a comfortable pace — plus I really loved how spacious the place was!

You can book easily through Naver Reservations, and since it's open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, you can fit it around your own schedule, which made it even more convenient.