Hey everyone! So this is my second time in Seoul and I want to talk about something specific — not "the best photo spots in Seoul" because there are already a million of those posts, but the ones I went back to. Which is a much shorter list!
Quick context: first trip was last year and I basically ran around trying to see everything. Came home with about 800 photos and maybe twelve I liked LOL. This time I picked three places and went to each of them twice, at different times of day. Much better results, way less exhausting.
What I got wrong the first time
Timing! Just timing, honestly.
I was showing up at places at like 1pm because that's when I happened to be nearby, and 1pm is the worst light of the day for basically everything. Harsh shadows, blown out sky, and also the maximum number of other people standing exactly where you want to stand.
Second trip I planned around light first, location second. Sounds obvious. Took me a whole trip to figure out.
The other thing I got wrong: I was treating every location as a one-shot. Turn up, take photos, tick it off, never return. But a place looks completely different at a different hour, and you already know how to get there the second time, so the second visit is cheaper in every way. More on that at the end.
Ikseondong — go at golden hour, not midday
Ikseondong is the small hanok alley area near Jongno, and it is genuinely as pretty as it looks online. It's also very small and very popular, which is the problem.
At midday it's shoulder to shoulder and the alleys are narrow enough that you cannot get a clean frame. At around an hour before sunset? Completely different place. The light comes in low along the alleys, the tiled roofs go warm, and a lot of the day crowd has moved on to dinner.
The alleys are tight so a wider lens helps. I shot most of it around 24mm equivalent and still had to back into doorways.
Some practical bits:
- Weekday evenings are much better than weekends. On a Saturday it doesn't really thin out.
- The alleys interconnect, so if one is blocked with a queue there's usually a parallel one.
- Be considerate. People live and work here, it's not a set. Don't block doorways and don't photograph into people's windows.
I went back a second evening just because the first one went so well!
Euljiro — the district is the subject
Euljiro is completely different. It's an old industrial and printing district, and it's not pretty in the conventional sense at all — it's metal shutters, tangled wiring, tiny workshops, stacked materials on the pavement.
I love it there. It's the most photogenic ugly place I've ever been to!
Two things I learned:
- Daytime is for the workshops and the texture. The district is working during the day, shutters up, everything visible and busy. This is when you get the detail shots.
- Night is for the neon and the alley bars. Same streets, totally different photos. The narrow lanes between buildings light up and it goes very moody.
So Euljiro is genuinely worth doing twice in one trip. Same place, two completely separate sets of photos.
A note on this one: it's a working district and the people there are working. I stuck to shooting the buildings and the streets rather than pointing a camera into workshops, and asked when it wasn't obvious. It's also worth knowing that parts of it are being redeveloped, so some of what you see in older posts is already gone.
Han River at night — bring something to sit on
The Han River parks at night are the easiest good photos of the whole trip.
I went to the Yeouido side. The bridges are lit, the towers on the far bank are lit, and the water gives you the reflection for free. You don't need to work for it.
Practical stuff:
- Bring something to rest your camera or phone on — a small tripod, or honestly a bag works. Handheld night shots at the river will be soft.
- Go on a weekend evening if you want people in frame, weekday if you don't. The difference is huge.
- Convenience stores are right there, so you can stay for hours without planning anything.
- The bridge fountain runs in the warmer months on a schedule — worth checking the times if you want it.
I stayed until about 11pm both times and it never felt unsafe, which I know is a common question. There are people around until late and the paths are lit.
Camera settings, briefly
I'm not going to pretend to be technical, but a few things fixed most of my night shots:
- Lower your shutter than feels safe and brace against something. A railing works. Most of my keepers were shot leaning on something.
- Don't push ISO to fix a dark frame. Underexpose slightly and lift it later — the files hold up better than the noise does.
- Turn off auto white balance for the neon stuff. It fights you constantly in Euljiro and the results are inconsistent between frames.
And shoot more than you think you need. Storage is free, second chances are not.
The ones I didn't go back to
Feels only fair to include these, since the whole post is about what was worth returning to.
Bukchon. Beautiful, and I'm glad I saw it, but it's the most photographed place in the city and I couldn't find a frame that felt like mine rather than a repeat of something I'd already seen a hundred times. Also the crowds are constant and residents are understandably tired of it.
Namsan Tower. The view is the view. One visit covers it. The photos everyone takes from up there are basically identical and mine were no exception.
Gwangjang Market. Genuinely fun and the food is great, but photographically it defeated me — very low light, very tight, and everyone's moving. I'd go back to eat, not to shoot.
None of these are bad places! They just didn't reward a second visit the way the other three did, and with limited time that's the distinction I care about now.
Small things that made a difference
- Charge everything. Cold weather kills phone batteries fast and I lost an evening to this on trip one.
- T-money card for the subway, obviously, but also buses — often the better route to river parks.
- Comfortable shoes. These are all walking locations and you'll do more than you plan.
- Go back to places. This is the actual point of this whole post. One visit gives you one version of a place. Two visits, at different times, gives you something much better.
Would I add anything for trip three?
Probably Seongsu, because everyone tells me I'm missing out, and maybe somewhere outside Seoul entirely.
But honestly I'd rather go back to these three again than add five new ones. Two trips in and I'm still finding new frames in the same alleys, so it feels like there's more there.
If you've shot any of these spots and found a better time of day than what I've said, please tell me! I'm taking notes for next time.