Seoul is a huge city with so much much to see and do. It is a great place for engagement photography and this session reflects some of the beautiful locations it has to offer. For this session, we went back and forth on whether or not to head out of Seoul. Eventually, we settled on making the most of this beautiful city.
When Stefanie first reached out, we chatted about the cherry blossoms as a possibility. However, as always, I exercise some caution when recommending planning an entire session around the blossoms. Check out my post on Korea’s weather for more on these. This year, they didn’t quite match up with Stefanie and Shin’s visit to Korea and we were unable to use them. So, we settled on a few locations that would give a good sense of Korea: Gyeongbokgung, Yeouido Park, and the Han River. Since they chose a three-hour photoshoot, we were able to get a few different locations and a change of clothes in while still making use of the best light of day.
Gyeongbokgung
Gyeongbokgung closes early, so we started there. The harsh afternoon light gave us a couple of beautiful options. First, we used it as a backlight for some flattering portraits and a glowing feel. The late spring light can be extremely beautiful here when the sky is clear and we were really lucky on this day. I love to work on both cloudy and sunny days for my engagement photography but this day really couldn’t have been any more beautiful.
We also wanted to make use of the sunlight to bring out the colours of the palace and give the session some real life. Playing with light and shadow can give a different feel to the palace. So, we made use of it as much as we could. You can see a few of those images below.
The gorgeous awnings of the palace also make for great shaded areas where we can produce some lovely portraits. By stepping under the awnings, we were able to get gorgeous soft light flowing in from just one direction which really flatters the couple. There was really no light we couldn’t work with to make Gyeongbokgung a special place for this pre-wedding photoshoot.
Yeouido Park
For our next stop, we took a quick metro ride over to Yeouido Park. We quickly changed clothes on the way before walking through the afternoon sun at the park. Nestled in amongst the buildings, this area makes for a great end of day location. For approximately an hour towards sunset, the warm light hits all the leaves and turns the park into a beautiful glowing background.
Han River
Before leaving the park, we made use of some of the art pieces there for something completely different. Then, we headed down to the Han River to complete our session with some shots to show off the city. After we wrapped up the session, we all headed over to one of my favourite barbeque restaurants in the city for dinner to finish up a great afternoon of shooting.
If you’d like to see more of my work, you can do that on Instagram and Facebook. Also, please reach out to me here if you’re interested in having your own photoshoot here in Seoul or anywhere in Korea.
