Tips for Taking Great Prom and Graduation Pictures

If you're the parent of a teen, this is the time of year when you inevitably find yourself wishing you knew more about cameras. As the school year draws to a close, you're suddenly presented with a number of epic photo opps—prom night, graduation ceremonies, don't-forget-to-call-us-when-you-get-to-college hugs and kisses. And, if only you'd done your homework, you'd be prepared to capture those moments in the light they deserve.

After all, how hard can it be to use red-eye reduction?

Well, the good news is that it's not too late for a crash course in portrait photography. With a few choice tips, you can dramatically improve those graduation pictures. At the very least, you'll be less stressed during the photo session. And, you know, that's really important, because you want your subject to be smiling.

It's not easy to create a natural-looking portrait. In fact, even the great late 19th-century painter John Singer Sargent struggled with the challenge. "A portrait," he once said, "is a painting with something wrong with the mouth."

But prom and graduation pictures present a unique test. For one, you're dealing with teenagers, who don't often view picture-taking with Mom and Dad as a source of great fun. Now add to that the fact that those teens are out of their element.

Yes, your daughter looks dazzling in that dress, coiffed hair, and makeup, but that's certainly not what she's accustomed to wearing. And that tuxedo on your son? There's a good reason it's rented.

So keep that in mind. If your models are stiff and awkward, they're justified in feeling that way. It's your job to put them at ease.

Know Your Gear

Before you start taking prom and graduation pictures, make sure you’re familiar with the camera, particularly if you’re using an SLR or mirrorless model, which offer more controls and settings than a point-and-shoot. (For more information on each category, check out our digital camera buying guide.) Yes, you can photograph your subjects in auto mode, much like you do with your smartphone, but for a photo like this, you ideally want to have more say in composing the final image. So take some time to understand the tools at your disposal.

A friend of mine who's a professional photographer once told me it's smart to think of a camera as a foreign country. To truly understand how to speak its “language,” you need to spend some time in its midst. Page through the instruction manual, then shoot some test shots, experimenting with the settings.

To raise up your portraits, play around with the depth-of-field. That's a great way to direct all eyes to your model's beautiful face, as I did in the photos above. By choosing a shallow depth-of-field, I brought the imagery in the foreground into sharp focus, reducing everything in the background to amorphous blobs of light and shadow.