How to Make an Outstanding Graduation Portrait for Your School’s Yearbook

Graduating high school is a significant milestone in your life, an important moment to celebrate. One way to remember your high school days is by taking a great graduation portrait photo. These graduation senior photos can also be a gift for your family, who has supported you through the years. After all, many families hang the milestone photos of their loved ones.

Now, the one-million-dollar question is: how can you make a memorable graduation portrait? In this article, we will give you tips and techniques to make unforgettable senior grad pics. We will also present some ideas that hopefully will start a creative spark in you.

Part 1. Preparing for the Graduation Portrait Photoshoot

You do not want to get overwhelmed on the day of your senior graduation photoshoot. That is why you need to prepare everything in advance, especially if you plan to take graduation portraits outdoors. Since there are many things you have to prepare, from the clothing you wear to the props you use, you should start planning as early as possible.

Here is a guideline on what you should prepare:

1. What to wear for your graduation portrait

Clothing is certainly a crucial part of a senior graduation photoshoot. Though dressing well is a must, you should keep your clothing simple. After all, the focus of graduation pictures yearbook is you and not your clothes.

One thing to remember, since your graduation sash and apparel usually come in dark colors, you should pick a suit or dress in light colors. If possible, you also better avoid patterned clothing, including plaid, stripes, or polka dots. Once you pick your clothing, you should iron it the day before to prevent wrinkles.

2. Practicing your smile and expression

Posing is just as important an element of a graduation yearbook photo as your clothing. If you are not good at improvising a good pose, you should look for some posing ideas. One of the classic poses is standing straight on, facing the camera. Even though this pose seems simple, you can change your photo's feel and look by putting your arms, hands, legs, and feet in different positions.

On the other hand, you can also choose to pose face away towards the camera. This unique pose symbolizes excitement and anticipation of the future. You can also take graduation senior portraits while sitting down. Depending on where and how you sit, it can make you look casual or dignified.

3. Choosing the right location and backdrop

After you finish picking your clothing and planning your poses, you should choose the location. School is an excellent place to take graduation senior pics. You can pick your favorite spots to spend with your friends, giving a touch of nostalgia to your photos.

If you want to take graduation portraits outdoors, you can also go to a beautiful park or a notable landmark in your neighborhood or city. The advantage of shooting in open spaces is the opportunity to include many of your friends in the photos.

Part 2. Use Online AI Generator to Make A Graduation Portrait

There is nothing wrong with hiring a professional photographer or even renting a photo studio to take your graduation portrait photos. However, it is not the only way. Now, thanks to the advances of technology, specifically AI, you can get your professional-quality photos without having to go to a photo studio. You can get everything done from the comfort of your home.

If you are interested in using an AI-powered tool, you can try FaceHub. One of FaceHub's features you can try for free is AI Portrait. With this feature, you can get photos of yourself in various styles, including the yearbook style.

Aside from ease of use, using AI to take your graduation photos offers other benefits. One of those benefits is that you do not have to worry about what you should wear. With the help of online tools, such as FaceHub, you can superimpose your face into a photo of another easily. This way, you can get your photo done with the clothing of your choice without having to get the clothing yourself.

You would think that you needed a deep understanding of photo editing to use an AI-powered web-based tool, such as FaceHub. But that is where you are wrong. Using FaceHub AI Portrait is so easy that you can get your graduation photos done with a few simple clicks.

Here is the step-by-step guide to using the AI Portrait on FaceHub: 

Step 1. Visit FaceHub's AI Portrait official website and click the "Generate Portrait Now" button

Step 2. Choose the style you want

FaceHub offers more than 20 styles you can choose from. Choose Casual Photos style if you want something more casual, or Business Photos if you want something more formal. The best part is that FaceHub also has a Yearbook style.

Step 3. Upload your photo

On the right side, you can see photo samples that FaceHub provides. You can go to the "My Face" tab to upload your photo.

Step 4. Click the "Generate" button

Now, the only thing you need to do is sit back and relax. FaceHub will do its magic and swap your face into the templates provided.

Step 5. Download the resulting images

If you are not satisfied with the result, you can click the "More Portrait" button, to generate more pictures. However, if you love the resulting images, you can download them by clicking the "Download" button at the top-right corner.

Part 3. Editing Your Graduation Portrait for the Perfect Finish

To ensure you get the best quality for your grad portrait photos, you can hire the service of a graduation portrait photographer. Once you get the photos, the next step is to edit them. You do not have to make significant changes to your photos to make them more memorable, you only need to make small changes, such as adjusting the colors and brightness or smoothing the little imperfections like pimples or stray hair.

Here are the small adjustments you can do to enhance the quality of your graduation photos:

1. Fine-tuning with editing software

You can use Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, or other photo-editing software to fine-tune the elements of your graduation portrait photos. You can refine the color or adjust the contrast and brightness. You can also crop the photos to focus on the part you like the most or sharpen the quality of the image.

2. Adding personal touches with effects and filters

To personalize your graduation photos, you can also add effects and filters to your liking. You can also use animations, like graduation balloons, to spice up your photos. Last but not least, you make a collage out of your graduation photos.

3. Choosing the best format for sharing

Sharing your graduation photos on social media is a must. However, usually, every social media has its image size. For example, if you want to upload your photos to Instagram, you should get a 1080 x 1080 photo for a Square or 1080 x 1350 pixels for a portrait. Meanwhile, TikTok supports videos with resolutions of up to 1080 x 1920 pixels.

So, even after you get your graduation photos, when you share them on social media, you need to ensure that the format and size of your photos meet the criteria of the social media.

Conclusion

Many people celebrate graduation as a milestone in their lives. Taking graduation portrait photos is seen as a way to celebrate your achievements and to remember your memories in high school or college. That is why many people are willing to go all out to ensure that they have the best graduation senior portraits. To do that, some people choose to hire a graduation portrait photographer or take their photos in a photo studio.

However, hiring a professional photographer or renting a studio can be quite expensive. Thankfully, now, you can get your senior graduation photoshoot with the help of AI tools, such as FaceHub. With FaceHub's AI Portrait, you can get your grad portrait picture fast and effortlessly. You do not have to worry about picking the right clothes or makeup since you can choose the template you want on FaceHub.