Graduations are a big deal, because in most contexts, you can only be photographed graduating once. Once your graduate has strode across the stage to collect their high diploma, you won’t have the option of do-over because you missed the vital moment.
No matter how awkward your loved ones look in their cap and gowns, you’re going to want to capture the milestone to the fullest effect. Here’s some tips for taking great graduation photos.
Boost your ISO and try to isolate your subject
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Graduation ceremonies are typically sprawling affairs. It’s certainly the best option to use a telephoto lens, which is primarily intended to capture images of people far away from the camera. This will help you wade through the crowd and focus the shot on your preferred subject, as opposed to all the other graduates you don’t know.
What’s more, telephoto lenses are good at blurring the background of an image so your subject really shines. They’re also good for portrait photography, which is essentially what you’re going for, albeit at a distance. As Borrow Lenses notes, this kind of lens will be particularly flattering for your subject.
This effect can also make facial features appear to be more proportional. Add to that the beautiful bokeh from shooting with a long lens and you have a great tool for portrait photography.
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Another key if you’re using a digital SLR camera—and especially if you’re not an expert—is to boost your ISO function. The ISO refers to your camera’s sensitivity to light. When you’re using a long lens or photographing a fast-moving subject—such as a sprinter, or even someone walking across a stage—a larger ISO setting will help produce crisper images.
If you’re shooting in daylight, having a lower–but–still–somewhat–high ISO is recommended, but its importance increases even more in low-light settings, like, say, a cavernous gym. Digital Photography School details some best practices:
Sure, when the light is bright, you can keep the ISO at 100 or 200 and end up with sharp, well-exposed images. But as the light begins to drop, you’ll need to raise your ISO with confidence. That way, you can capture bright and clear photos at 300mm, 400mm, and beyond.
Another piece of advice, especially for the laypeople who might not have fancy lenses, is to put your camera on automatic settings. If you do this, you might also try using an auto-focus lens, which will allow you to sit back and just enjoy the proceedings.
And of course, consider the flash (or don’t). Nikon recommends only using it if you’re close to your subject and indoors—two conditions that probably won’t apply to your graduation ceremony simultaneously.
Unless you’re relatively close [read: in a classroom], don’t bother using a flash. The flash won’t reach your subjects so it won’t help the exposure and may drain your batteries.
Pointers on good images to capture
Good photographers—even the amateurs—capture the subtle moments. So, you’ll have to find a healthy balance between stealthy portraits of the day’s festivities and staged photographs.
One point to emphasize, at least in a thematic sense, is that this is a graduation, meaning the accoutrements of such an event—the cap and gown, the school, the diploma, etc.—should be a focal point. Basically, you’ll want to try a bunch of different things, all within the broader category of portraiture. Take portraits of the graduate with family, friends and whoever else you see fit. Try to incorporate the school’s campus, as recommended by Mimeo Photos, which says:
Entryways and porticos are ideal. You won’t regret getting that one picture in front of your school’s sign or mascot statue.
As far as taking legit portraits are concerned, experts recommend using longer lenses for them too, which for people shooting on full-frame D-SLRs, means “lenses with focal lengths typically between 70mm and 200mm,” according to DP Mag. As the photographer and writer Jack Crosbie tells Lifehacker, longer lenses “make things look flatter, which is more flattering to people’s faces.” Wider lenses, on the other hand, make people look bigger and disproportionate to reality, on occasion.
Even if your photo skills are sorely lacking, be mindful of all the big, celebratory events that usually define a day, like the hat-toss, walking across the stage, and reveling with friends.