Rainy Graduation Day? How to Get Amazing Photos Whatever the British Weather Throws at You

Every July and every autumn graduation season, I get the same anxious message from at least a handful of families: "the forecast says rain — do we still go ahead?" The honest answer is almost always yes. British weather is unpredictable enough that any photographer who works outdoors regularly — whether that's graduation photography in Cambridge, family sessions in a park, or a wedding in the Fens — has learned to plan around it rather than be defeated by it. Rain does not have to mean cancelled photos, disappointing photos, or photos you settle for. It usually means a slightly different set of photos, and sometimes genuinely better ones than you would have got under a flat blue sky.

Why Graduation Day Weather Causes So Much Anxiety

Graduation is one of those days that gets built up for months, sometimes years. Parents fly in from abroad, grandparents make the journey specially, gowns and hoods are hired at some expense, and the whole day is structured around a ceremony that happens at a fixed time whether the sky cooperates or not. Unlike a wedding, where you can often choose your season and build in a full contingency plan with a marquee or an indoor backup venue, graduation dates are set by the university and cannot move. If Senate House graduation is on a Thursday in July with rain forecast, that Thursday is still the day.

This is exactly why I think about weather contingency for every graduation booking from the moment it is confirmed, not the night before. Cambridge in particular has enough covered courtyards, arcades, and grand interiors within the colleges that a wet forecast changes the shot list rather than cancelling the session. Knowing those options in advance, rather than scrambling for them with an anxious family standing in the rain, is most of what makes a rainy graduation session work well.

What Actually Happens on the Day When It's Wet

In practice, a rainy graduation day session looks a lot like a dry one, just with more decisions made on the move. I check the forecast closely from about five days out, watching for the difference between a day of steady rain and a day of scattered showers, because the plan differs for each. Steady, all-day rain means we lean heavily on covered locations and time outdoor shots for any lull. Scattered showers mean we can often get the classic outdoor shots — gown, cap, college backdrop — in the gaps between bands of rain, sometimes with better light than a cloudless day would give.

On arrival, I have a short conversation with the graduate and family about priorities: which backdrops matter most, whether grandparents can manage walking between locations if we need to move quickly during a dry spell, and whether anyone in the group has a real aversion to getting slightly damp for the sake of a shot. Most families, once reassured that we are not going to stand exposed in a downpour for twenty minutes, are far more relaxed about a bit of drizzle than they expect to be. The mood on the day tends to follow my mood, so I try to treat rain as a minor logistical adjustment rather than a crisis, and that calm is contagious.

Best Wet-Weather Locations Around Cambridge

Cambridge is unusually well suited to rainy-day graduation photography because so many of the colleges have covered spaces with genuine architectural character. The arcaded cloisters and covered walkways at several colleges give a dry, sheltered backdrop that still reads as unmistakably Cambridge — stone arches, worn flagstones, and the kind of light that comes through covered spaces with a soft, even quality that flat grey sky outdoors simply cannot match. King's College Chapel's side porches, the covered areas around several college gatehouses, and certain library and hall entrances all give us usable, dry backdrops within a few minutes' walk of Senate House.

Punting sheds and boathouse canopies along the river offer another option if the ceremony college is close to the Cam, giving a very different, more relaxed set of images with water and greenery in the background even under grey skies. For groups who don't mind a short covered walk, several of the older college gateways have deep enough archways to shoot full-length portraits completely out of the rain, with the college crest or ironwork above adding real detail to the frame.

If the rain is heavy and shows no sign of breaking, I will sometimes suggest moving indoors entirely for a portion of the session — a college hall, a library reading room where permitted, or even a well-lit café interior can produce warm, characterful graduation portraits that feel completely intentional rather than like a fallback.

Practical Prep: What to Bring If Rain Is Forecast

A little preparation goes a long way. I ask families with a wet forecast to bring one large golf umbrella per small group rather than several small ones, since a big umbrella held slightly out of frame lets me shoot underneath it without it appearing in the photo, and it is far easier to manage than passing around several compact umbrellas between people. A spare pair of flat shoes for anyone planning to wear heels is genuinely useful, since cobbled Cambridge streets get slippery fast when wet, and comfortable footwear means less time spent picking a careful path and more time actually enjoying the day.

Gowns and hoods generally cope with a bit of rain better than people expect — most hire gowns are a fairly hardy polyester blend rather than delicate fabric, so a light shower is not going to ruin anything, though I would avoid letting anyone sit down on a wet stone bench in full academic dress if it can be helped. A small travel towel or a pack of tissues in someone's bag is worth having on hand for quickly drying a bench, wiping raindrops from glasses, or blotting a damp face before a close-up portrait. If hair and makeup matter to you, building in five minutes before the session for a quick touch-up after any dash between locations is time well spent.

Getting Great Photos in the Rain, Not Despite It

Some of the most striking graduation images I have taken have come from wet days, not clear ones. Rain-slicked cobbles reflect the sky and any nearby lights in a way dry stone never does, adding a whole extra layer of colour and texture to a street-level shot. Overcast, rainy skies give completely even, shadowless light across faces — the kind of light that professional studios spend a lot of money trying to recreate artificially. There is no harsh midday sun causing anyone to squint, no patchy shadow falling across half a face from a nearby tree, just soft, flattering, consistent light for the whole session.

An umbrella itself can become part of a genuinely lovely image rather than something to hide. A graduate laughing under a shared umbrella with their parents, cap slightly askew, has a warmth and a story to it that a static posed shot under blue sky often lacks. I also make a point of capturing a handful of candid, in-motion frames — someone dashing between a covered walkway and a doorway, umbrellas up, gowns caught mid-swirl — because these end up being the images families remember most fondly, precisely because they capture what the day was actually like rather than a generic sunny stand-and-smile.

Should You Reschedule Instead?

For graduation specifically, rescheduling the actual ceremony day is not usually an option, but the photography around it sometimes can be more flexible than families realise. If the university allows you to collect your gown and attend the ceremony on the set date but the formal family portrait session matters more to you than doing everything on the same day, it is worth considering a separate portrait session in cap and gown on a different, better-weather day within the same week or two, alongside quick, more casual photos on the ceremony day itself. This is not necessary for most families — the vast majority of rainy graduation sessions go ahead as planned and come out beautifully — but it is a genuine option for anyone who is particularly anxious about the forecast or has a very specific outdoor backdrop they are set on.

What I would strongly advise against is cancelling altogether because of rain in the forecast. Forecasts for a specific afternoon, several days out, are notoriously unreliable in the UK, and I have had more than one "certain downpour" graduation day turn into bright sunshine by two o'clock, and just as many forecast-sunny days deliver an unexpected shower. Planning for both scenarios and going ahead regardless is almost always the better call than trying to predict the unpredictable.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will you cancel a graduation session if it rains? No. I only reschedule in genuinely extreme conditions such as storm warnings, which are rare in a British summer graduation season. Ordinary rain, even fairly heavy rain, does not stop a session — it just changes the route and the locations we use.

Do you charge extra for wet-weather contingency? No, this is built into how I plan every outdoor session, whether it is a graduation, a portrait shoot, or a family session, at no additional cost.

How much time do we lose if it rains? Usually very little. A well-planned rainy session covers the same ground as a dry one, just with more indoor and covered locations woven in, and often takes about the same length of time overall.

What if some of the group don't want to get wet at all? That's completely fine — we can keep everyone under cover for the entire session if needed. Cambridge has more than enough sheltered, characterful spots to produce a full set of beautiful images without anyone stepping into open rain.

If you have a Cambridge graduation coming up and you are watching the forecast with a knot in your stomach, please don't let it put you off booking. I have photographed enough wet Cambridge graduation days to know they can be just as joyful, just as beautiful, and sometimes even more memorable than a sunny one. Yana Skakun Photography is based in Cambridge and available for graduation sessions there and further afield across the UK — take a look at pricing or more about how I work, and get in touch to talk through your date, whatever the sky decides to do.