Puglia wedding photographer, based in Trani
Who is your wedding photographer in Puglia?
Luciano Zitoli has photographed weddings for thirty years. In that time the studio has documented more than 5,000 of them, and averages 4.81 out of 5 across 168 verified reviews on Matrimonio.com, along with that site's Wedding Awards. Most of those couples married a short drive from our door. A growing number arrived from abroad, having chosen the country before they chose the photographer.
The studio is in Trani, at Via Umberto 130. Trani is a small harbour town on the Adriatic coast, in the north of Puglia: the region English maps still sometimes call Apulia, the heel of Italy. Bari airport is about forty minutes away by car, so you can land in the morning and stand in your venue the same afternoon. From there we work across the whole region: the cathedral at the water's edge, the beaches, the villas and masserie inland, the castles and the old hill towns.
If you are booking from abroad, one word will keep coming up: masseria. A masseria is a fortified farmhouse, built centuries ago to work the land, low and white and walled, usually with a courtyard in the middle and olive trees all around it. Many have been restored and now hold weddings. They photograph in a particular way: hard bright walls at midday, deep shade under the arches, and after five in the afternoon a low sun that turns the stone the colour of honey.
The studio is three of us. Luciano Zitoli, photographer and founder; Nicola Curci, photographer; Alessia Zitoli, who photographs newborns under the name Little Stories by Zitoli. The method is reportage: nothing staged, nothing repeated for the camera. We plan the day with you first, then stay close through all of it, from the first preparations to the last dance. To see how a full day is covered, hour by hour, read the page on wedding photography in Puglia.
How do we work on the day?
Four things you get in every wedding we cover.
Reportage, without posing
We do not direct your wedding. Nobody is lined up by the window, no gesture is repeated until it looks right. We study the timings beforehand precisely so that we never have to interrupt anything: a glance across the aisle, your mother's hands on the back of the dress, the friends singing badly at one in the morning. Years later you recognise yourselves in the pictures, not the photographer.
A team of three
Luciano Zitoli and Nicola Curci photograph weddings; Alessia Zitoli photographs newborns under Little Stories by Zitoli. We agree with you who covers your day: one photographer, or two working opposite sides of the same moment, one lens on you and one on the room.
Drone and film
Where the venue and the flight rules allow it, a drone and an action camera give what the ground cannot: the masseria seen from above, the procession crossing an old town, the ring of guests around you at night. Smart Wedding puts two of us on the day, one on stills and one on film, in a single service, with short edits made for sharing.
The day, planned with you
Before the wedding we sit down with you and build the running order: the hours, the places, the people who matter. That work is part of the service and not an extra line on the bill, and planning from another country makes it more important, not less. On the day we already know where to stand and what is coming next.
What does the light do here?
Trani is built from its own limestone, pale and faintly warm, quarried nearby. At noon in July that stone is flat and blinding. By five in the afternoon it has turned gold, and the cathedral at the edge of the water throws that light back onto anyone standing in front of it. We have photographed the ceremony inside Trani Cathedral and in small parish churches across the region, and the light is the reason we push a ceremony later whenever a couple asks us what to do.
The other thing to plan for is the wind. It comes off the harbour in the late afternoon and it will find a veil, a hairstyle and a table plan, so we tell you where to stand rather than fight it. None of this shows in photographs on a website, which is why we walk a venue before your date whenever we can. The venues we know best have a page of their own.
What is a masseria wedding actually like?
Most of the weddings we cover inland happen in a villa or a masseria: a courtyard for the aperitivo, the hour of drinks before dinner, then one long table under the trees, a dinner that starts late and runs into the small hours. Guests arrive along a white gravel drive, and the heat does not really drop until the sun does. The rhythm is slower than many couples expect and the evening is far longer, and that changes how a day has to be photographed.
We have worked in villas and masserie, in castles and old towns, on the beach and at the water. We do not put venue names on work we did not do, so what you see in the galleries comes from our own archive. If you have booked a place you have only ever seen online, send us the address and your times: we can tell you where the sun will be and what the hour before dinner will look like.
See a wedding day move
Drone, action camera and footage from the ground: the film follows the same rule as the photographs, nothing staged and nothing repeated. With Smart Wedding one of us stays on stills while the other films, so photography and film arrive as a single service, with short edits made for sharing.
Weddings by the sea
From our archive: ceremonies and portraits on the Adriatic, in natural light.
What couples abroad ask us first
Where is Puglia, and how do our guests get there?
Puglia is the heel of Italy: a long region on the Adriatic side of the south, with sea on both flanks. Most couples and their guests fly into Bari. From the airport it is about forty minutes by car to Trani, and the masserie, villas and coastal towns we work in are mostly within an hour or so of that. Our studio is at Via Umberto 130 in Trani, a few minutes from the harbour, and there is a page of its own on weddings at Trani Cathedral.
How much does the photography cost?
A complete wedding runs from 1,500 to 3,000 euros. What sets the figure inside that range is the number of hours, whether a second photographer works alongside us, whether you want film and drone as well as stills, the album, and the travel involved. We agree every line before anything is signed. Our page on wedding photography prices sets out how each one works.
We are planning our wedding from abroad. How does that work?
In writing, mostly. Send the date, the venue and whatever times you have on WhatsApp, and we will come back to you with our availability. Everything after that, the running order, the light, where the two of you will be at each point of the day, is easier to settle in messages that can be read twice than in a rushed phone call in a second language. If you come out before the wedding, we can meet at the studio.
Do you only work in Puglia?
No. There is no limit on the area we cover. When the distance genuinely affects the work, travel appears as a separate line in the quote, stated before you decide anything. Trani, Barletta, Andria, Bisceglie and Bari are the closest to us, but the wedding goes where you go.
Il racconto in movimento
Un estratto dai nostri matrimoni: cerimonie, feste, riprese dal drone.
Is your date still free?
Send us the date, the venue and roughly how many of you there will be. You get our availability and a clear price, with no obligation.