Field note: adapted from my Korean diary entry of 15 May 2024. We paid for the studio and salon ourselves. Packages and rates change, so the figures below record our booking rather than advertise a current offer.
In 2024 both postpartum care centres I had considered were tied to the same photography company, and my hospital had an affiliated studio too. The easy path was already arranged for us. We declined it.
What I Did Not Like About the Affiliated Package
Two things put me off. The first was aesthetic. I have a certain amount of ambition about photographs, and I kept wondering why everyone's maternity pictures looked identical. Same poses, same lighting, same soft white room.
The second was the terms, and it bothered me more. As it was explained to me, a maternity-only shoot did not include the original files. I could not freely choose which images I wanted, and even if I signed an additional contract, the originals were a separate purchase on top.
It reminded me of our wedding package, where meaningful choices appeared after the entry price. I did not want to repeat that negotiation while pregnant.
So when the studio called at around twenty weeks, I declined. Cleanly, without leaving it open.
Then Everyone Else Started Booking
The resolve lasted until my group chat filled up with other mothers announcing their bookings. Suddenly I felt the pull of the deadline: perhaps I should be doing something after all.
What rescued the decision was remembering our wedding anniversary. We had used a self-service studio then, photographing ourselves, and I had been happy with both the value and the quality. If it had worked for the two of us before, it could work now.
The only thing I insisted on was getting my hair done properly first. My hair was bleached and dry, and I am hopeless with a hairdryer. That was not a detail I trusted to myself on the morning.
What the Local Room Offered
I found several self-service studios nearby and chose one with a one-hour basic booking. It offered costume and prop packages, but I skipped them. The basic option gave us the original files, selected retouching and prints for 70,000 won, which was the ownership arrangement I wanted.
The Morning, and What We Brought
I booked an afternoon slot, went to the salon in the morning for a blow-dry, came home to do my makeup, packed our props and drove over. My husband and I never manage to be early. This day was no exception.
Our prop list was short:
- Clothing, two tops
- The 3D ultrasound photograph
- The long printed ultrasound strip
- A soft toy
- A pair of baby shoes
That was genuinely all we took, and in hindsight it was enough. The ultrasound images did more work than anything else, because they are the one prop that could not belong to anybody else's shoot.
The Hour Itself
We had saved pose references in advance, and the room let us press the shutter ourselves rather than race a fixed timer. Those two details kept the hour moving. The salon visit also helped, although in the original note I only dared to say that it seemed to make a difference.
How the Photographs Turned Out
We shot two concepts in the hour, white and then black. The results are the reason I am writing this at all: I liked them enormously.
They are not elegant in the way a professional maternity shoot is elegant. They are a bit silly, and we are visibly messing about, and that is precisely the point. They look like us rather than like a template that happens to contain us.
I edited a few originals myself and asked the studio to retouch the rest before printing. The part I valued was simple: I could keep every original and make those choices after the hour ended.
What It Cost
The whole thing came to 95,000 won: 70,000 for the studio hour and 25,000 for the blow-dry.
A self-service room is not a substitute for a photographer when you want direction, styling and a gown. We wanted something else: an hour alone, two tops, the files afterwards, and photographs that looked recognisably like us. That is what the 95,000 won bought.
Sources checked
Last reviewed August 29, 2026.
- Original Korean diary – self-service maternity photo shoot — Banggujin Naver Blog
Schedules, prices and operating rules can change. Where a detail is time-sensitive, the linked operator remains the final authority.
