For a few years, after I first started shooting, I considered shooting locations important. I searched for beautiful places every season and made a list. However, nowadays, I tend to decide on a shooting location according to my customers' stories rather than picking somewhere I prefer. Many couples have their own love story, and beneath each story, there is a background. This is why I search for the neighbourhood where they live or places with special memories or episodes of the couple. Then I choose the time for shooting considering the direction of the light and decide on a final spot.

My key role in choosing a shooting location through this process is to know in advance how the light of the shooting scene changes over time. Not just remembering the place as “a pretty spot”, you need to write down something like, ‘The main gate of Busan University is most beautiful around 16:30 when the light enters the gate.’ Don’t forget, the consideration of a shooting location is completed when you consider time.

It takes some experience to set up a shooting location properly. While it is important to know many shooting spots, it is also very important to know how to connect your shooting plan to those places. If you are planning to perform outdoor shooting alongside a photo shoot of a couple, you should invest time to search for information about shooting locations and make a list of good places to visit.

Finding information online and social media is a good starting point, but it’s always better to go visit the place in person. My shooting location list only includes places that have no problems when location scouting.

Couple shots are often not taken in a studio. Therefore, there is not much that a photographer can control. When taking pictures outdoors, unexpected situations can occur, and you might have to work around it. The weather plays a big role in the shoot because it affects the amount and direction of light and there might be a lot of wind or rain.

When it’s cloudy, don’t let the sky appear in the picture. In this weather, using a telephoto lens instead of a wide-angle lens may be more effective. Moreover, search for a deep forest or a spot between buildings. The same goes for a rainy day. Use the light’s contrast to create depth in the picture.

Of course, the most important thing is you and your models’ opinion about the shoot. There may be times when problems with filming locations occur. In the case of Florence, Italy, where I shoot quite often, there were many construction sites since it was an old city. So I always kept a list of places for shooting so I could move to a different place whenever a problem occurred. So it’s good to have backup locations in mind whenever one location doesn’t work out.