Throughout the month of November, our Photo of the Day series will be taken over by each of Rangefinder‘s newly minted 30 Rising Stars of Wedding Photography in 2019. The 30 honorees are featured in our November issue, and each of their full, 30-photo submissions, reviewed by the competition judges, can be found in our online gallery. For more behind-the-scenes insights, follow us on Instagram.

There’s an undeniable sense of warmth, elegance and simplicity in Matteo Innocenti’s wedding photography. “At least that’s what I look for in my pictures,” says the Tuscany-based photographer. “I always look for some Caravaggio-style natural light” and dramatic shadows, so you can mostly find him looking for peculiar light for his portraits, even in unconventional places.

More than his style, though, Innocenti suspects he gets hired for his laid-back approach and relaxed attitude. “I am not a superstar,” he says, “I do not push people to play a role on their wedding day.”

Below are his behind-the-scenes insights on three of the photos from his submission this year.

I think this picture is the one I cherish the most. I’ve known this couple for years so we were at totally ease with each other and that helped us a lot on the wedding day. It represents the perfect chemistry that they have. I have never seen anybody in love like they are.

We spent my usual 10 minutes to shoot portraits, and this was taken at the end. I saw a light coming from a window in this old medieval kitchen and I just asked them to take a moment for themselves and realize that they just got married. They hugged and it was so real, so intense. I just had to press the shutter.

This shot is a little different from what I am used to and that’s good news for me, I think. I usually shoot with a 35mm f/1.4 lens to have shallow depth-of-field but I felt that I needed more depth for the action so I used a Sony 28mm f/2. The colors helped me since they pop from a white and grey background. The move from the girl in red looks like a knockout punch to get the bouquet!

This is one of my favorite dancing shots. It was taken at the end of a very elegant wedding in Borgo Stomennano, a beautiful villa in Tuscany. It was a little bit challenging since the room was quite narrow, but the lights from the DJ were just perfect for this shot. It helped to do a test shot of my second shooter dancing alone (yeah, I have TONS of pictures of Alessio dancing alone). That way I could get the right fill light from my LED without killing the DJ lights. The picture came out just like I had imagined, so I am really proud of this shot.