Spectacular night shots develop as Delaware wedding photographers combine skills

The News Journal

A couple hugging each other in a glittering summer night. Another among trees still heavy with autumn leaves. Yet another against a rainbow-colored facade.

They are all one of the many dramatically lit night wedding photographs that have become a signature shot for Moonloop Photography's Joe del Tufo and Jim Coarse.

"They are not novel in concept, but we feel we bring a twist to them, and keep them fresh with each wedding," del Tufo and Coarse said in an email.

When Coarse and del Tufo formed the company in 2015, they came from different backgrounds. Coarse had been shooting weddings since 2007, but most of what del Tufo had focused on was entertainment and studio-based work. They wanted to combine and share skills to come up with something unique.

The wedding of Katie and Stephen Biondy at Talamore Country Club in Ambler, Pennsylvania.

"We asked ourselves, 'What can we do at every wedding that will have us excited and thinking creatively every week?'" they wrote. "Over time, night shots and ring shots became our signature images."

Night shots aren't novel, but del Tufo and Coarse have tried to create shots that use their lighting expertise and play off of the couple's personalities, wedding location and style.

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They have increasingly focused on the night shots in the last five years, and now couples come to them with shots in mind.

"We’ve had less of the traditional 'exit' shots, like sparklers, as the couples substitute the night shots," they wrote. "In some cases, we’ve had couples whose only regret was not getting a Moonloop night shot in the rain. We’ve even improvised a little in those cases."

The wedding of Lauren Stoner and Matt Dukenfield at Spring Hill Manor in Cecil County, Maryland.

Despite looking complicated and time-consuming, the shots only take about five minutes to set up. They can be handled by one photographer, but del Tufo and Coarse often work with another shooter to speed things up, because the couples usually leave their receptions to take the photo and they don't want guests to think they've left.

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del Tufo wasn't excited about shooting weddings when he and Coarse formed the company. He says Jim guided him toward realizing that each wedding could be creatively different.

They use a lot of the lighting elements Joe used in creative portraits and album/ magazine cover work such as off-camera lighting and creative gels for colors (taped or rubber-banded to flashes originally).

The wedding of Andrea and Tim Davis at Luciens Manor in Berlin, New Jersey.

del Tufo first tried it at a 2010 wedding in Arden. Jim expanded to incorporate larger scale lighting and strobes, the venues and surrounding nature into a more cinematic shot.

Sometimes, as many as seven lights are used.

"Our night shots in 2018 are very different than they were in 2017," they wrote, "and we plan to evolve it continually."