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.

When Corinna and Dylan Kovacevic are shooting a wedding, they’d like the frames to be represented as memories rather than exact representations of reality.

Their style, heavily influenced by their love of cinema, is “a balance between taking truthful images ‘of’ people and artistic images ‘about’ people,” they say, and imperfections are welcome. “We’re not scared of dipping our toes into the absurd, or breaking tradition if it aligns with the values of our clients.”

In that regard, it benefits the Canberra, Australia duo greatly to get to know their couples and truly connect with them.

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

One of the greatest challenges as photographers is creating images “about” people, rather than simply “of” people. In our process, empathy is the essential first step in finding these subtle nuances, well before anything more technical. If there is one thing in common with us all, it’s that life has its twists and turns, ups and downs. We feel that together, safe in the hands of love, we can ride the giddy highs and hold each other through the lows. Through our experience with Steph and Dilhan, we felt they knew, lived and shared this perspective. On their wedding day—one of the highest of highs—we wanted to make something that said this about them. 

Nanna has some lippy applied before family portraits, so in that very moment, she is looking her best, forever. Every wedding photographer knows that family portraits are *most definitely the best part* of a wedding day. It’s so tempting to discount this tradition, moving through it as efficiently as possible and taking only what you need. But we think there is so much you can learn about how a family or community sees itself and its culture when they prepare for a group portrait. “What order should we stand in?” “Can we hold our drinks in these photos?” Be kind, let it play out, pay attention and people will reveal themselves to you.

As a general rule, we’re guided by light. It is so darn useful at giving form, emphasizing mood and providing atmosphere. We found this sliver of light falling gloriously onto a staircase, which transformed it into an interesting space. So we started placing objects in the space, in order of largest to smallest. First the dress, then progressing down through the florals, shoes, until finally the perfect fit: the rings. Study the light, be curious and play. Sometimes it won’t work out, and sometimes it will.