One of nice things about living in Korea is that you can get what you want quickly. You would love to use fast services like getting glasses, medical visiting (getting treatment from a specialist), quick food delivery and many kinds of same day delivery services.
And photo services are as well. In case of photo printing service, you can have the printed photos delivered to your house on the same day as the order. You can also have a fabulous portrait shot of you for ID or passport within the day. The quickest and simple way to get the photo, of course, is going into the photo booths in subway stations. However that you are in Korea, you have a much better way to get a nice quality of photo taken by a photographer in a photo studio at a similar price!
There are many photo studios in Korea. A majority of Korean companies used to require a resume and a cover letter in with a photograph. So it was popular to take a portrait shot wearing a suit and putting on make-up. The retouched photo makes to get an immaculate and professional impression of an applicant.
I know there are those who feel uncomfortable about retouching a photo. Too much photo editing makes someone think that is cheating. When you look on the bright side, however, others have some help from Photoshop. It will help you remove blemishes, scars and a mole on your face without heavy make-up. It will also save your time for a nicer result by trimming the sticking out hairs, making shoulders symmetric or smoothening skin. I don’t need to be sad anymore about an intensely naturalistic mug shot.
There is a dressing table with a large mirror to fix your makeup and hair. If you forget to dress up, it is okay. You can rent a suit for 3,000 won.
Before I share my experience, I let you know there has been a few changes since I visited. Price was raised from 10,000 won to 12,000 won or 15,000won. (There are two options.) And the studio has renovated. But it is still reasonable price. You get 10~12 prints depending on a size of photo. I think those are enough to use for a few years. You can use them to submit for a passport photo, driving license or health insurance card, etc.
After photo shoot, you would choose one from pictures. The next is to retouch the picture as blemishing and smoothing your skin or balancing your pose and face. In my experience, a staff asked if there was anything else I wanted on the progress of touching up my picture.
With all that done, you can send your perfect photo file to yourself with the computer in the studio during waiting the photos to be printed so that do not need to scan it. You can reprint the photo file if you need more extra photos. There are many online photo print providers.
The requirement details about a passport photo could be differ from each country. You should be sure of passport photo regulations about the proper size, the background color, acceptable level of retouching a photo or available period.
On last detail, the basic price (Photobi White) is 12,000 won and the premium price (Photobi Pro) is 15,000 won. Photobi White option provides simple retouching on the photo and only white background color. Photobi Pro provides a detailed retouching to meet customer needs on a one to one, having more options on background color and an additional wallet-sized photo.
I choose a basic option and paid extra 3,000 won for additional printing of passport-sized photos.
I’d recommend you to visit on weekdays rather than weekends to avoid a long wait. If there is no queue, it would take only 30 minutes to get you a photo.
Getting a nice new ID photo in less than an hour at a reasonable price would be a profitable experience while you are visiting Seoul. Especially if you have a plan for renew your ID or passport!
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Webpage : https://photobi.modoo.at/?link=e7dhsl5j
Address : B1, Seogyo-dong 332-13, Mapo-gu, Seoul
Telephone : +82) (0)70 7581 4782
Operating Hours : 11:00 – 20:30 (Monday Closed)
Transportation : Hongik University Station (Seoul Subway Line 2, Airport Railroad) Exit 7 or 8
