Studio Rental vs Hiring a Photographer in Seoul

At Botong Lee Studio in Seoul there are two different bookings, and people often ask about them as if they were one thing.

You can rent the room — the space, the lights, the backdrops — by the hour. Or you can hire the photographer, in which case you are paying for the result, not the room.

They are priced differently, they are cancelled differently, and they ask different things of you on the day. All of it is published, so here is the comparison in one place.

A studio room with an orange sofa, patterned curtains and a strobe light

1. Renting the room

This is the option when someone in your group is doing the shooting — a friend with a camera, or you and a tripod.

15,000 KRW per hour for two people, plus 5,000 KRW per hour for each additional person.

Minimum booking is two hours.

Available dates and times are on the studio's Spacecloud page, and you book the slot there yourself.

A few worked examples:

2 people, 2 hours — base rate → 30,000 KRW

4 people, 3 hours — 15,000 for two plus two extra people → 75,000 KRW

6 people, 2 hours — 15,000 for two plus four extra people → 70,000 KRW

Included in the room: strobes, continuous lights, backdrop papers, props and a tripod. The backdrops are a chroma-key paper plus colour papers in red, yellow, green and black; white is a separate large fabric backdrop.

Bring your own: a trigger and a shutter release, because those depend on your camera body. The studio tripod exists, but the mounting plate may not fit your camera, so bringing the one you already use is safer.

Daylight is best around 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. If you plan to shoot without artificial light, book one of those windows. There is a bathroom to change in and a full-length mirror in the room — which, incidentally, is also the most-used prop here.

2. Hiring the photographer

Here you are buying the result, and the rate does not change with the type of shoot.

70,000 KRW per hour of shooting — outdoor portraits, self-wedding shoots, milestone portraits and full wedding ceremonies are all the same rate.

Travel time is added at the same hourly rate. It is measured from the studio in Samseon-dong, Seongbuk-gu, using Naver Map public-transport time, counted both ways.

Retouching is separate: 7,000 KRW per image. You receive every original file first and then choose how many you want retouched. There is no minimum.

Shoots are paid in full up front. Once payment clears, that slot is not offered to anyone else.

One point worth knowing before you compare quotes: if the shoot happens inside the studio, there is no travel time and no room-rental fee on top. You are not paying for the room twice.

Worked examples:

Inside the studio — 2 hours, no travel → 140,000 KRW

Outdoor shoot in Seoul — 2 hours plus a 1-hour round trip → 210,000 KRW

Wedding ceremony in Seoul — 3 hours plus a 1-hour round trip → 280,000 KRW

Wedding ceremonies are the one case with a separate written contract, because the scope is fixed: arrival 90 minutes before the ceremony, three hours as standard through the group portraits, and any overrun billed in 30-minute blocks of 35,000 KRW.

3. The cancellation rules are not the same

This is where the two bookings differ most, and it is the part people discover too late.

Cancelling a shoot carries a fee, because the date was held and no other shoot was accepted for it.

Cancelling 8 or more days before — 50% of the total shoot fee

Cancelling from 7 days before, up to the day itself — 100% of the total shoot fee

Cancelling a room booking refunds on a sliding scale instead.

8 days before your booking — 100% refunded

7 days before — 80%

6 days before — 70%

5 days before — 60%

4 days before — 50%

3 days before — 30%

2 days before, the day before, or the same day — no refund

Room bookings cancelled within two hours of confirming are refunded in full, so if you booked the wrong slot, fix it inside that window.

One more thing that catches visitors: if you booked through a third-party platform — Naver Reservation, Spacecloud — that platform's policy governs your booking, not the studio's own table above.

4. When you actually get the photos

A room booking ends when your hours end. A shoot has a timeline after the day itself.

All original files are delivered within 7 days of the shoot, unretouched.

You then pick how many images you want retouched. That request is due within 6 weeks of receiving the originals.

Retouched files are delivered within 6 weeks of that request.

Delivery is a web-drive link, and the download stays live for 3 weeks. Originals are kept for 6 months and then deleted, so download and store your own copy.

Standard retouching means colour and white balance, exposure and contrast, basic blemish cleanup, and straightening or recropping. Body and facial reshaping, compositing and background edits are not part of it — those are quoted first and only done once you agree to the price.

5. Which one do you want?

Someone in your group is shooting → rent the room. You are charged by headcount and hours.

You need the result to be someone's responsibility → hire the photographer. You are charged by hours, travel included.

The shoot happens inside the studio → the room is already covered; do not add a rental fee to your estimate.

You are not shooting at all — a small gathering, a workshop, a work session → book it as a room rental, counting everyone who will be in the room.

Both cancellation schedules above tighten sharply inside one week, so the cheap time to change your mind is early.

The full rates and the twelve clauses covering booking, cancellation and delivery are published on the studio page and the booking and refund terms. If you are planning a self-portrait session, how to split a two-hour booking covers the day itself, and why photography quotes are usually hidden explains how these numbers were arrived at. For a studio-and-outdoor day in the same trip, there is a walk from the studio to Changgyeonggung and Naksan.