These photo tips are for parents, siblings and friends of soon to be, or recent graduates. They’re also for the graduates themselves and beginner portrait photographers. Hopefully, they’ll help you make better and more meaningful photos for the class of 2022.

I live in Columbia, SC so I’ll have special tips for where most of my cap and gown sessions take place, the University of South Carolina.

1. Avoid midday direct sun. This is typically the most difficult light for portraits. If your only opportunity to photograph your graduating senior takes place immediately after a ceremony, at noon, try to find some shade from an overhang, porch, or building and keep both your subject and background in the shade. The closer to midday, the more challenging this is. But if the open sun is your only option, throw on the shades. This is appropriate.

2. Clouds and grey skies are good. Those clouds blocking the sun produce the most manageable light for portrait photography. The overcast sky acts like a giant photo studio soft box and folks faces will be pleasingly lit, even at midday. Lots of folks think a bright sunny day is great for making photos, but for portrait photography in this scenario, that is not the case.

3. Make photographs during golden hour. The most fundamental thing to remember here is that “photo,” means “light,” (from the Greeks) — and light is the most important element in photography.

Golden Hour has the most dynamic and dramatic light — and it isn’t going to cast dark shadows in your eye sockets.

There is one golden hour in the morning and one in the evening. Both you and your senior probably don’t want to wake before sunrise to make photos, so you’re probably only looking at evening golden hour. Some folks refer to this first and last portion of daylight as “magic hour.” I prefer this. Typically, I don’t put subjects in direct sunlight and instead work in the edges of magic hour shadows.

Keep in mind that light has direction. Outside in the late afternoon and early evening it normally comes from the west unless it is blocked by a building. In that building’s shadow, it typically comes from the unblocked sides. Normally we want light on our subject’s faces. Remember though, there is still plenty of light in these shadows, just not as much or as harsh than in the open sun. Keep everything in a shadow and you’ll have an even exposure.

Golden hour changes a few minutes each day, as our daylight hours grow and shrink. This info is available on the internet and there are apps for it. Also, if present, clouds will affect the look and timing of golden hour. (see: golden hour apps)

4. If your phone or camera has a longer lens option, choose that. Move your subject away from the background. Get closer to the subject than the subject is to the background. If you both move away from the background, you can include more of it. Make the subject fill the frame. Make them small in a corner. Have fun and play with it. Encourage your senior to play music on their phone.

5. The minutes immediately after sunset can provide great lighting. Golden hour continues even though the sun is down.

6. The horseshoe and the immediate area can provide dozens of great locations but they change with the season and time of day. There are interesting buildings, open spaces, lots of gardens and lots of brick walls and paths. You will trip. The president’s house (1) is one of the more appealing and popular backgrounds. 

The iconic horseshoe gates (6) are located on the west end and the McKissick Museum (2), often draped in colorful Gamecock logos, is on the west end. During the height of spring the area behind McKissick explodes with colorful flowers.

Cocky’s statue (3) is near the observatory on Greene St. The Thomas Cooper Library (4) is a good spot and even better if your senior is brave enough to get in the “pond.” You might also want to try something on Greene St. (5).

7. Photograph your senior inside and/or outside of their current residence. They don’t need to be in a cap and gown or dressed up. Twenty years from now those clothes and surroundings will produce great nostalgia.

You don’t have to limit making photos to a purposeful photo session. They may be snapshots but they’ll have special meaning as the years pass. You might come away with some candid moments that preserve the era. 

8. Find out their favorite place to eat on campus or off. Make photos of the experience. Take them to their favorite bar. Include a server or bartender in a photo. Once again, those little details in the location will be appreciated years down the road. Also, if they have a vehicle, photograph them with it. 

9. Clean up after yourself. Don’t use glitter or something similar if you’re not going to vacuum up each piece. Don’t spray booze around unless you’re going to rinse it off. 

10. There will be a billion other people on campus on pleasant spring weekends.

11. Make sure your senior has all wrinkles/fold marks removed from gown. If they don’t, it looks bad.

12. Make photos before our South Carolina days start to get too warm. We all how hot it gets here. Even in May. Early April is the best mix of blossoming displays and pleasant temperatures.

About the author: Sean Rayford is a freelance photojournalist and commercial photographer in Columbia, SC where he works with the New York Times, Getty Images, the Associated Press and many others. He is a 2001 graduate of the University of South Carolina.

You can book senior portraits in Columbia, SC with Sean Rayford. Limited sessions available.