Rolling into graduation season, we love to see graduates milling about in their hard-earned graduation gown. Here’s how to take cap and gown pictures for high school graduation, or college grads too, before they walk the stage at the commencement ceremony to get their coveted degree or diploma.
This post is all about how to take cap and gown pictures and poses that you can take on your smartphone that your graduate will love.
High school graduates will typically have a senior picture session taken in regular clothes by a professional photographer sometime during their senior year. Typically, they won’t have their gown sets or additional items for their senior portraits.
On graduation day, the graduate will have their grad gown so it is the perfect time for family members to grab some great photos of your child during this special moment, the culmination of years of hard work. This post is to help those of us who are not professionals, nor have the equipment for professional photographs, to come up with some great grad photos in the classic cap and gown regalia.
Slowestuff Graduation and Back To School Section
This is a seasonal focused blog, so we love Graduation Season and Back To School Season!
This post is focused on how to take Cap and Gown pictures, but we have a lot more ideas and posts to discover in our Graduation and Back to School section of the blog! Things like the best dorm room vacuums, budget friendly laptops for college, and genius graduation gift ideas.
How to Take Cap and Gown Pictures – Planning
This is not a post to give you tips or tricks on high quality camera settings or how to set up those features for the best shot based on your conditions. We are definitely not photographers!
These picture ideas are for the folks who are getting to graduation on a wing and a prayer, throwing on their cap and gown, trying to keep it together, and still snap a few pictures on their iphone or android that they will love for years to come.
Our goal is to give you some ideas for shots to keep in mind before you head out to take pictures, so it will be a piece of cake once you get there. Planning ahead is definitely the better way to go. We have learned that your graduate may be nervous or stressed out, so you may have to give lots of coaching during the pictures since they likely haven’t thought of what to do in the photos.
They will be looking to you to give instructions. After it is all said and done, they will be thankful you did, and you will be thankful you did a little planning!
How to Take Cap and Gown Pictures – Picture Ideas
The cap and gown photos featured here were for a high school graduation, and were taken on an iPhone with little to no editing. For best results, they are all taken outside, which is the best lighting you can find! We try to avoid direct sunlight because it makes you squint, but outdoor lighting is always a winner for a good photo shoot.
We want to give you some great graduation picture ideas for a graduation photoshoot on the big day. Even though these pictures were for a cap and gown picture ideas for poses and angles to get decent pictures without spending a lot of cash. You could easily edit your pictures with a photo editing app to make them look even better!
How to Take Cap and Gown Pictures – Holding The Cap and Gown
Try a few with your graduate holding the cap and long tassel, with the gown over the shoulder. It still says “graduate” while being able to feature him or her in their graduation outfit!
If you have that cap locked down with bobby pins, another good idea is, after the graduation ceremony, you could have the graduate hold their diploma cover instead.
This is also great way to show off that beautiful white graduation dress! It is a classic look, so if you are in the market for a white graduation dress to wear as graduation attire, regardless if you are receiving your high school diploma, bachelor’s degree or master’s degree, check out this post of 65 white dresses that will work for that, and then can be worn all summer long.
Ditch that heavy gown for a few pictures with just their graduation cap and tassel.
It was super windy on graduation day, but we embraced it! Speaking of that, lets talk about candids.
How to Take Cap and Gown Pictures – Candids
Since you or your family members & friends are going to be taking the pictures, be sure to catch the candid moments!
These are some of our favorite pictures from the graduation photo session because it shows that they had the best time. Capturing these graduation memories is priceless.
From Dad helping out, to the wind making everything look wild, snap some pictures when they are not posing and you will really get a sense of the mood of the day.
It will also let your graduate look back and remember what it was like that day, and how they felt when they graduated from high school or college. Good or bad memories, perhaps, but memories nonetheless! (Remember graduates, you don’t want to peak in high school!)
How to Take Cap and Gown Pictures – Keep Snapping
Be prepared to take a zillion pictures. Take them from different angles. Look at where the sun is as well as what is in the background of your shots. Take them from a lower angle as well as from standing height.
Keep snapping after the picture to get the honest reactions. These will all add to the number of amazing pictures you will get that capture that great day. There are a lot of factors that can go into capturing amazing cap and gown pictures.
You have to have some classic poses like the traditional graduation cap toss!
We took approximately 1 million of these pictures to capture just the right one. Don’t hesitate to be super extra in the number of pictures you take. You can always go back, review the ones you like, and delete the rest. You may be pressed for time [or patience] so just take a bunch of pictures and figure it out later!
The cap toss action shot is always mayhem, and they will laugh after all the attempts. Its a perfect time to grab some adorable candid pictures.
Here is an example of different angles producing slightly different pictures. Which one do you like better?
Cap and Gown – How Not To Look Like A Box
Graduation gowns – safe to say they are not the height of fashionable attire. Slightly boxy, with soooo much fabric!! Depending on the sizing chart (or whether the school used one at all) the gown lengths can vary as well. No worries, though. Even with a lot of material happening, these are an admittedly distinctive gown.
One way to combat your graduate getting lost in all that fabric is to get them to move! Here are a few ideas on things to do for great shots in the cap and gown.
The graduates will like these tips too, because they will have something to do with their hands. Isn’t that the most awkward feeling—not knowing what to do with your hands in a photo?
Walk
Have them walk towards you while holding their cap with the gown front zipper open. These photos will look very natural and chic with the interest of movement. Plus the graduates will have fun as they werk it!
Gown Zipped Up
I know putting your hand on your hip for a a picture is cliche, but it honestly is one of the best things you can do to break up the boxy shape of the gown when it is zipped up.
If your graduate has graduation accessories like honor cords or graduation stoles, this will also help to break up the big boxy shape.
If you are doing senior pictures or graduation pictures with a best friend or with a group, don’t forget to also take individual photos rather than just group photos. Each person will want to have a picture or two of themselves to mark this special occasion.
Gown Unzipped
If you want some pictures of your graduate with the gown on but unzipped, this does give a little more options to see the person and not just the enormous gown, while still being very obviously a graduation picture.
Take A Stroll – Find Different Interest Points
Wander around your school to different points of interest to capture some cool shots. We love that this school put a message on its football scoreboard congratulating the class. Perfect picture opportunity!
You can also snap pictures of your graduate not looking at the camera. We love these ones of the best friends looking up at the scoreboard while holding their graduation caps in place!
Be sure to consider different perspectives on a similar picture, as it can completely change the result.
I always like to take candid pictures of the graduates walking around. Its more natural, less posed, and lets you get a snapshot of them a little more relaxed as they are moving from one picture staging location to the next.
Have A Seat
If your graduate is willing to sit down, it can create some fantastic options for cap and gown pictures. You can even take a little cushion with you for them to sit on if they don’t want to get their outfit dirty, and just hide it in the gown fabric.
Try some with your graduate holding their cap in front of them.
Time For Your Close Up – Cap and Tassel
We also love to get close-up shots of the tassel, and our favorites are the ones with a blurred background and a focus on the graduation year. We just used portrait mode on our phone for that, but you can also add in blur later via photo editing apps.
How to Take Cap and Gown Pictures – Outta Here!
Inspiration struck as we were literally getting in the vehicle to head to the ceremony. Loved how she looked sitting in the truck with her gown on, so we snapped a couple of pictures. It’s a great way to wrap up a graduation photo session!
How to Take Cap and Gown Pictures
Classes are complete, graduation packages are ordered, class yearbook is in hand, and the high school seniors are sporting a custom class ring or custom school apparel proudly proclaiming their graduating class. School colors are plastered everywhere with excitement and nerves high – or even frayed. This is such an exciting time, but it can also be overwhelming for your newly minted graduate.
We hope this post inspired you to grab your smart phone and take some amazing shots of your graduate before (or after) they walk across that stage!
Looking for more graduation ideas, or things you need to be ready for college? Check out our Graduation & Back to School section of the blog!
Hey, let’s be friends on TikTok and check us out on Youtube at Slowestuff!
Don’t forget to subscribe to the Slowestuff newsletter for year-round content! We love to talk about seasonal topics, and keep an ongoing discussion about books and scrapbooking all year long!
Congratulations to all the graduates, and good luck!
Slowestuff
Pin This Post to refer to it at graduation time!
Leave a Reply