Many people know about Francesco Spighi photography thanks to first-rate wedding images for Candid Family Sessions and Italian Elopement. Although Francesco started his photography career not long ago, he has already gained recognition in Italy and abroad.
This Francesco Spighi photography review describes the life of a photographer and his passion for shooting. Read on to learn what led him to photography and how he managed to create a personal blog delivering helpful photography and business tips.
One day in 2013, Francesco Spighi suddenly decided to become a wedding shooter. He quitted his former job where he had been working for 10 years. Francesco was an engineer and project manager. Soon, at the end of 2015, he began a professional photography career.
However, Francesco Spighi first showed his talent in childhood. He liked drawing and was good at copying various things around him. He enjoyed depicting how light behaves. Photography helped him find a new way of presenting reality. He just changed the tool and continued working with light shapes.
Talking about Francesco Spighi, we're now speaking about an affirmed wedding photographer in Tuscany, based in Florence but working all over Italy and abroad.
This genre made him extremely popular. However, he isn’t limited only to wedding shooting. Francesco creates various types of photographs but if you look through his portfolio, you will clearly understand what genre he favors.
Francesco tries to take absolutely natural shots. He actively guides his clients with posing, trying to show their personality, emotions, and feelings.
Most portraits belong to the contemporary style. Image editing usually includes professional face retouching, and makeup and body editing if necessary. Francesco Spighi portraits are distinguished by warm shades and pleasant deep color mixes.
Francesco Spighi also practices lifestyle photography for engagements. He believes it is a great way to capture the story and practice before a wedding photo session. Francesco shares numerous engagement photography tips for his models to feel relaxed in front of the camera.
Francesco Spighi photography is not about classic posing. He prefers photojournalism. This way, a client doesn’t notice a photographer and behaves absolutely natural. Thus, a photographer can capture tender touches and sincere emotions that clients can’t show when posing.
Although Francesco Spighi has some staged photos, all his works are creative and natural. He constantly generates wedding photography ideas and is open to experiments. Clients like it when the shooting process is organized in an unobtrusive way so that they can relax and feel at ease. Spighi knows a slew of winning wedding photography poses and actively helps his clients during the shooting.
He always uses a wedding photography contract to be on the safe side. Therefore, you can be sure your photos won’t appear on the net without your permission.
Although everyone goes online now and we prefer digital copies of everything, sometimes we still lack “old-school” stuff like printed albums. They preserve some valuable memories and allow us to plunge into them without having any gadgets at hand. Francesco Spighi highly appreciates the beauty of photo albums and can help you get high-quality prints.
You can fully delegate the task of photo culling and printing to Francesco Spighi, who offers a full design service with some special features. You can pick one of three handcrafted albums to preserve the best moments of your life.
As you see, Francesco Spighi photography is not only about taking photos. If you decide to get one of the ArtBook Wedding albums, your shots will be printed on matte cotton rag paper. Thanks to the slightly textured surface, you get a rough, materic feel while photographs acquire deep blacks, fantastic depth, and tridimensional final effect.
It is an acid-free paper that neither fades nor has any optical brighteners. All albums come with a protective box made in the same color and style as the album. Moreover, all art books have a linen cover.
If you choose an AriaBook, you will get a lay-flat flush mount album printed on Fuji DPII photographic paper. You may choose among different coverings and a suitable page thickness. It is Fujifilm silver halide color paper created for professional use. It is a darkroom-developed photo lab paper providing stunning color depth and durability. It comes with a fingerprint-resistant finish. This paper guarantees the broadest color gamut, maximum density for deep blacks, and impressive color saturation.
Don’t worry if your wedding was several years ago and you have another photographer on that day. You can still order a wedding anniversary photo book from Francesco Spighi. Like the ArtBook, the AriaBook comes with a protective box made of the same fabrics.
Francesco Spighi also offers the Heirloom Books. These are case-bound books printed on a four-color digital press. It may be a perfect present as well as a great way to memorize some important events of your life. The Heirloom Books are lighter and more flexible than previous options. Plus, each photo occupies the whole page so that a viewer concentrates on a specific shot.
Thus, you may focus on every individual image and enjoy its smallest details. You can’t place one image across two facing pages since the middle part will be lost. This album also comes in a protective box.
Francesco Spighi uses lots of equipment. His go-to camera is Nikon AF-S 28mm f/1.4 E ED. He claims that this focal lens is the foundation of all photography.
To fix his camera, Francesco uses a SpiderPro Single Camera System or Genuine Strap cross belt with a white inner side as a more elegant variant. Thus, he definitely knows the answer to the question “What should a photographer wear to a wedding” not to attract much attention.
Speaking about lighting, Francesco Spighi has some secrets. When he works as a photographer at the wedding, he always has an additional light source to illuminate the scene. He uses Aputure AL-H198C LED panel or a Manfrotto Lumimuse 8 together with the best camera for wedding photographers. To get sharp pics from the dance floor, he uses Nikon SB-910.
Inflatable or manual flashes serve as additional lighting sources. These are a backup flash Nikon SB-800 and, Nikon AF-S 20mm f/1.8 G ED, Nikon PC-E 45mm f/2.8 and Nikon AF-S 85mm f/1.4 G.
Francesco carries around his wedding photography gear in a beautiful Incase Ari Marcopoulos Camera Bag.
Francesco Spighi uses Dell XPS 13 9370 and a couple of 1TB Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD to backup photographs.
After numerous failures, he changed gear for personal family photography projects. Now Francesco uses Sony A7 Mark III, Sony FE 28mm f/2 and Sony FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA Sonnar T (with a 95cm ROPSTER Camera Strap).
He believes the best lens for wedding photography is Panasonic Lumix LX100 with a fast zoom and premium-quality body. It is a portable device to take pro-level photos.
Francesco Spighi covers several topics on his blog. He mainly describes what gear he uses. This refers to cameras, lenses and even computers. This info may be helpful not only for professionals but also for beginners. There are also stories of his clients (of course, if a client permits that).
You can find there many wedding photography tips as well as shooting techniques. The blog is not frequently updated but social networks frequently remind of useful information available on the official website.