As a parent or relative of a graduating student from either high school or college, you are probably experiencing many emotions during this time of year. Graduation will be one of the most important ceremonies your child or loved one will ever experience. Of course, you will be there to watch them receive their diploma and throw their cap in the air along with their entire graduating class. But you also want to capture every moment and emotion on this important day. These tips can help you take great graduation photos that are full of emotion. There is no better way to capture and relive those irreplaceable moments in life.
- Take Candids! Especially with a digital camera that allows you to be selective and edit later, just take lots of pictures! The more you take, the greater the chances of capturing a perfect candid moment. Consider shooting photos of:
- Teachers, Professors, Speakers or Honorary Graduates enjoying the ceremony
- Excited parents and family members waiting for their loved one to get their diploma. Get up close to capture the anticipation and pride in their faces!
- The grad trying on their cap and gown for the first time.
- Get your grad having fun with their friends, hugging, waving, decorating their caps, or sharing a quiet moment together.
- Use a telephoto lens to capture them receiving their diploma, shaking hands with faculty, moving their tassel over on their cap, or marching in their gown and sash.
Casual and unplanned photos can be the most sentimental of all.
- Get as close as possible to the stage without interfering with the ceremony or getting in the way of other photographers. Again, a telephoto lens can be invaluable in these situations.
- Consider asking a “graduating” friend to take some photos for you. They may be seated nearer to the stage. Your grad could reciprocate, especially if names are called alphabetically and they are in different call groups going to the stage.
- Take photographs from two or more different angles to get more variety. This will spice up your graduation photograph collection.
- Get in even closer than you think you should. For great emotion, close-in on faces and capture those great expressions and connections between people.
- If the graduation ceremony is inside, keep in mind a flash typically only captures a ten foot range. Try to get as close as possible to the stage or podium. Get to the ceremony as early as possible to ensure a great seat or to take a quick shot of your grad on stage!
- If the graduation ceremony is outside, keep the camera in flash mode. This will eliminate unwanted facial shadows on the subject.
- If it is very sunny outside, make sure the sun is not directly behind you (the photographer) so the subject does not have to squint. Angle yourself so the sun is behind you, but to the side.
- Find out if the school hires a professional photographer to take the actual receiving of the diploma and the Principal or Dean handshake. If so, don’t stress about getting the perfect photograph. Don’t focus too much on the receiving of the diploma, so you don’t miss the pictures with more meaning; such as what the soon-to-be graduate’s face looks like right before his or her name is called or their facial expressions after they receive their diploma.
- For group shots, it can be quite complicated to get everyone in the shot looking at the camera lens at one time. To eliminate this, try and take multiple shots very quickly.
Visit the following sites for more information and resources for taking better photographs at graduation:
HP Digital Photography
Kodak
)With the nice spring weather, you will probably have the opportunity to take many great pictures of your family and loved ones as reminder and keepsake of the time you spent together. To make your special occasions even more memorable we have come up with some tips to help you take better photos of the people around you.
PLACEMENT:
1. In order to feel the emotion in photographs, focus on the eyes and mouth of the subject.
2. For children or pets, get down to their level to really capture facial expressions. Fill the frame with your subject for a truly intimate portrait.
Eye-level Photography
3. Instead of taking an entire shot of a person's body, place emphasis on their upper body and face. Unless you are photographing the subject's outfit or uniform, avoid taking whole body pictures when trying to focus on facial expression. These tend to be very distracting because background images are a larger part of the photograph and take away from the emotion of the moment.
4. Stand far enough back. By zooming in with the camera, the subject's face becomes more flattering. Step back and zoom in; the background will become blurry which draws more attention to the subject in the photograph.
5. Turn the camera and shoot some photos vertically. This makes it easier to zoom-in on faces.
6. For shooting groups of family members, HP Digital Photography offers great ideas on positioning, what to wear, and how to add some creative flair to the composition.
LIGHTING:
1. Keep in mind that cameras do not handle very bright areas, direct sunlight and/or dark shadows very well. A tip for this is for the photographer to position themselves so the sun is behind them and to one side. This will create light to shine directly on the subject’s face. If this causes the sun to shine in the subject’s eyes, have them keep their eyes closed, count to three and have them open their eyes as you take the shot.
Correct Lighting Example
2. For portraits, overcast days are usually the best. Set your camera to fill-flash or daylight flash to fill in shadows and add light to the subject’s face.
3. More times than not, use the flash. A common misconception in photography is that the flash should only be used at night. However, by adding the flash during day photographs, unattractive dark shadows can be eliminated. Use “slow-sync” or “fill light” mode on the camera to avoid unwanted shadows.
4. At night, also use “slow-sync” or “fill light” mode to capture subject’s faces along with background images. Cameras with a normal full flash tend to create solid black backgrounds that are very unflattering to the subject’s facial expressions.
EMOTION:
1. Steer away from primarily focusing on portraits or posed pictures. Candid pictures capture true emotion because they are unexpected. At an event, snap away when people are engaged in conversation, dancing, etc.
2. There is nothing worse than spotting a fake smile. As the photographer, tell a joke or story that can help stir up emotion right before photographing.
3. Surprise yourself! Take candid pictures of laughing, crying, yelling, playing, etc. You'll get a variety of true emotions that could turn out to be one of the greatest photographs in your collection.
Kodak offers a terrific list of "Top 10 Tips" with visuals that are really useful. Check it out. For more professional tips on candid photography, visit Digital Photography School’s tip list.