Graduation photo collages
One day, one outfit, one set of steps outside one building. It is the least varied material anybody makes a collage from, and knowing that is most of the solution.
A holiday gives you two weeks and five places. A graduation gives you four hours, one gown and a courtyard. Every photo has the same person in the same clothes against the same wall, so a collage built only from the day looks like one photograph taken repeatedly. The fix is not a cleverer arrangement, it is more material, and it comes from before the day rather than during it.
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1. Bring in photos from before
This is the whole page, and it is what separates a graduation collage that means something from one that documents an afternoon.
A photo from the first year. Same person, four years earlier, in a corridor or a room. Beside the gown it does more than any other cell can.
Something from the work. A desk at 2am, a studio, a lab, a stack of books. Nobody photographs these on purpose and everybody has one.
The people who are not in the gown. Parents, a flatmate, a supervisor. A graduation is a group achievement dressed up as an individual one.
Three of those beside three from the day is a story. Six from the day is a set of portraits.
2. The gown is in every cell
Academic dress is dark, matte and shapeless, and it occupies most of the frame in every photo taken on the day.
Crop closer than usual. A full-length gown photo is two thirds black fabric. Crop to the shoulders and the face fills the cell, which is what anybody looking at it wants.
Watch the background. A dark gown against a dark building has no edge. The outdoor photos with sky behind them are worth more here than they look.
Let the hat carry the colour. The cap, the hood and the flowers are the only colour on the day; a photo that includes them earns a bigger cell than one that does not.
3. What to make
The single card. One large photo, two small ones, a light ground. This is what gets sent to relatives, and it should be readable at postcard size.
The four years. Four or six cells in order, first year to last. The strongest version of the idea and the one nobody thinks of.
The day itself. Six to nine cells, everything, no hierarchy. Fine as a record, and it is not the one to print.
4. Make one
Pick a collage above and it opens ready. Before you fill it, go and find two photos from before the day: it takes five minutes and it is the difference between a record and a story.
More in the graduation guide, and print sizes if it is going in a frame, which it usually is.
Questions about Graduation collages
Why does my graduation collage look repetitive?
Because the day gives you one person in one outfit against one wall for four hours: it is the least varied material of any occasion. The fix is more material rather than a cleverer layout. Add a photo from the first year, something from the work itself, and one of the people who are not in a gown.
How should I crop graduation photos?
Closer than usual. Academic dress is dark and shapeless and a full-length photo is two thirds black fabric, so cropping to the shoulders puts the face where it belongs. Favour the outdoor photos with sky behind them, because a dark gown against a dark building has no edge at all.
What is the best graduation collage to print?
One large photo with two small ones on a light ground, readable at postcard size, because that is the version that gets sent to relatives. The four-years version - one cell per year in order - is the strongest idea, and it is the one almost nobody makes.
How many photos should I use?
Six is plenty, and three of them should come from outside the day. Nine cells of the ceremony is a record rather than a collage, and it is not the one worth framing.
