College Graduation Portraits on the South Shore

You spent four, five, maybe six years earning this, and the portrait session that marks it deserves more thought than a rushed photo on the quad between the ceremony and your parents' car. College graduation portraits are their own category — different regalia, a different client, a different set of decisions than the senior portraits you might have had taken in high school. This guide covers what actually matters: when to book, where to shoot on the South Shore, how to handle a gown and hood you have probably never worn before, and why the smartest graduates leave the session with two looks instead of one.

If you already had senior portraits done in high school, this is not a repeat of that session. You are older, you are usually paying for it yourself or splitting the cost with a parent, and you are walking into a job market, not a yearbook deadline. The regalia is more complicated, the timing window is tighter, and the photos need to do double duty — one set for the milestone, another set that works as your first professional headshot. If you are looking for the high school version of this guide instead, see the post on high school graduation portraits.

Your College Graduation Session Is Not Your Senior Portraits, Take Two

The biggest mistake I see is treating a college graduation session like a redo of high school senior portraits, just with a different gown color. It is not the same session, and it should not be planned the same way. In high school, the client is usually a parent booking on behalf of a teenager, and the photos live in a family album or on a mantel. In college, you are 21 or 22, you are often the one paying, and the photos have a job to do beyond sentiment — they need to represent who you are walking into the next stage of your life.

That difference shapes almost every decision in this guide. It changes what you wear, where you shoot, how long the session runs, and what you do with the images afterward. A high school senior session is about capturing a moment before it is gone. A college graduation session is about capturing that same moment while also producing something useful — a professional image you will actually use in the months that follow.

Timing: The April-to-June Crunch

Most college commencements in Massachusetts land in May, which means the real booking window for graduation portraits runs from April into early June — a narrow, busy stretch that overlaps with prom season, Mother's Day, and the tail end of the senior portrait rush. If you wait until you have your cap in hand to think about photos, you will be competing with every other graduate in the state for the same handful of good-weather weekends.

My advice is to book as soon as your ceremony date is confirmed, which for most schools happens well before spring. Aim to have a session date locked in by February or March. And when you are picking the actual day, consider shooting a week or two before commencement rather than after. Your gown will still be fresh out of the packaging instead of wrinkled from a weekend of hugging relatives. Your hood will not have been twisted around from sitting through a two-hour ceremony. And your schedule will be calm instead of crammed between the processional, a family lunch, and a drive back to campus to clear out your dorm.

The exception is if you specifically want photos from the ceremony itself — walking across the stage, the tassel turn, the moment your name gets called. Those only happen on the day, and no pre-ceremony session replaces them. But for the posed portraits, the ones that actually go on a wall or into a LinkedIn banner, earlier is almost always better.

Campus or South Shore? Choosing Your Location

Plenty of graduates default to shooting on campus because it feels like the obvious choice — it is where the whole experience happened, and the architecture usually looks the part. That instinct is not wrong, but campus sessions come with real friction during commencement season. Many schools require a permit for professional photography on their grounds, foot traffic on commencement weekend is heavy, and if you are coming from a school in or around Boston, you are often competing with dozens of other graduating seniors trying to get the same shot in front of the same fountain. If campus photos matter to you, check your school's photography and permit policy before you plan around it — I do not have any special access or relationship with individual campuses, and neither does any photographer without a permit in hand.

The South Shore alternative is quieter, and it is where your family can actually get to without fighting commencement weekend traffic and parking. A handful of locations do the regalia justice without any of the campus red tape. World's End in Hingham gives you rolling drumlin fields and harbor views that read as timeless rather than tied to any one school. Nantasket Beach in Hull works well for graduates who want open sky and water behind the gown, especially in the softer light of late spring. The Scituate lighthouse and harbor gives you a genuinely distinctive New England backdrop that photographs beautifully against navy or black regalia. Duxbury Beach and the North River marshes both offer that wide, marshy, golden-hour look that flatters almost every gown color. And the Rockland studio at 83 E Water Street is the reliable backup — clean, controlled regalia portraits regardless of what the weather is doing that day. For a broader look at where the light is best across the whole region, see the guide to the best beach photography locations on the South Shore.

Regalia 101: Gown, Hood, Cords, and What Goes Underneath

Regalia is more complicated than a high school cap and gown, and it photographs very differently if nobody has thought it through beforehand. Start with the gown itself — have it pressed or steamed before the session. Packaging creases are stubborn, they show up clearly in photos, and there is no fixing them after the fact in a way that looks natural. Give yourself a day of lead time to get this done properly.

The mortarboard is its own small challenge. It should sit level, with the flat surface roughly parallel to the ground rather than tipped back like a beret — a slight forward angle almost always photographs better than dead center or tipped too far back. If you are a master's or doctoral graduate, the hood is the piece that needs the most attention. It has to lie flat against your back and drape symmetrically over both shoulders, and it almost always needs a second pair of hands to arrange correctly — do not try to get it right by feel alone, have someone check it from behind before we start shooting.

Honour cords, stoles, and pins each carry meaning, and they deserve to be visible rather than lost in the folds of the gown. Bring anything you plan to wear and we will arrange it so it reads clearly in the frame rather than disappearing. Underneath the gown, keep it simple — a collared shirt or blouse that shows at the neckline is enough, since most of what is underneath will not be visible anyway. Shoes matter less for the regalia shots since gowns usually cover them, but bring something you can walk comfortably in between locations. And plan for a second outfit: once the regalia portraits are done, we change into something else entirely for the second half of the session. For more detail on prepping and pressing regalia specifically, the site's cap and gown portrait guide covers the same fundamentals from the high school side, and most of it applies here too.

The Half of the Session Nobody Plans For

Here is the part almost nobody thinks to ask for, and it is the part I would push hardest for if I were in your shoes: a professional headshot, shot in the same session as your regalia portraits. Walking across a stage in a cap and gown is a milestone. Walking into a job market with a current, professional headshot is a practical necessity that most graduates put off for weeks or months after they actually need one.

You are already dressed, already have hair and makeup done, already have a photographer and a location booked. Doing a second, separate headshot session later means paying for another booking, finding another date, and doing all the prep work twice. Instead, we shoot the regalia portraits first, then change into clean professional clothes — a blazer, a button-down, whatever you would wear to an interview — for a second, simpler set of frames against a neutral background. Those become the photo on your LinkedIn profile and your first resume packet, and they are frankly more useful to you in the next six months than another cap-and-gown shot. If you want to see what a dedicated headshot session looks like on its own, visit the headshot services page, or read the full professional headshot guide for what makes a headshot actually work for job applications.

Twenty Minutes for the Family Who Flew In

Graduation weekend is one of the rare stretches when your entire family is actually in the same town at the same time — parents, grandparents, siblings who normally live somewhere else, maybe an aunt or uncle who made the trip specifically for this. That kind of full-family overlap does not happen often once everyone is scattered across their own lives, and it is worth twenty minutes of the session to capture it properly.

I build this in as a short add-on at the end of the regalia portion, before we move into the professional headshot half. It does not need to be elaborate — a few frames of you with your parents, a few with the whole group, maybe one with grandparents if they made the trip. These are the images that end up meaning more in ten years than almost anything else from the day. If you want a longer, dedicated family session around the same weekend, the family portrait services page has details on booking that separately.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should I book college graduation portraits?

Book as soon as you have a ceremony date — ideally by February or March for a May commencement. The April-to-June window is the busiest stretch of the year for South Shore photographers, and the best golden-hour dates go first. If you want your session before commencement weekend, when your schedule is calmer and your gown has not been through a full weekend of hugging and hat-tossing, plan on booking eight to ten weeks out.

Can we shoot on my campus?

Sometimes, but check your school's photography and permit policy first. Many campuses require a permit for professional photography, especially during commencement week when grounds crews and event staff are managing heavy foot traffic. I do not have any special access or relationship with individual campuses, so if campus photos matter to you, confirm what is allowed before we plan around it. If your school restricts outside photographers or the permit process is a hassle, a South Shore location gives you the same regalia and the same emotional weight without the red tape.

Should I do photos before or after the ceremony?

Before, if you can manage it. Shooting a week or two ahead of commencement means your gown is freshly pressed, your hood sits correctly because nobody has been wearing it in a receiving line, and you are not fighting fatigue, humidity, or a rushed schedule squeezed between the ceremony and a family lunch reservation. The one exception is if you specifically want images from the ceremony itself — the tassel turn, the diploma handoff — those only happen on the day.

Can I get a professional headshot in the same session?

Yes, and I would recommend it. Most college graduates need a current headshot for LinkedIn and job applications within weeks of walking, and scheduling it separately means another session, another date, another cost. We shoot the regalia portraits first, then change into professional clothes for a second, cleaner set that works as your first real headshot out of school.

How much do college graduation portraits cost?

Pricing follows the same tiers as a senior portrait session — it depends on session length, how many locations you want, and whether you add the professional headshot half of the session. A single-location, single-outfit session sits at the lower end of that range, and a longer session that combines regalia and headshot looks sits toward the higher end. Reach out for current package pricing, and see the packages listed under senior portraits for the exact tiers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris McCarthy

Chris McCarthy is a portrait photographer based in Rockland, MA who has been photographing the South Shore full-time since opening his studio in 2014 — more than a decade of outdoor and lifestyle portrait work across the region. He specializes in headshots, senior portraits, branding, family, and maternity photography — shooting at his studio at 83 E Water Street and on-location throughout southeastern Massachusetts at places like World's End, Scituate Harbor, Duxbury Beach, and the North River conservation land in Norwell.

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