Online dating profile pictures
Experience
Single people have come to me for more than two decades now to help them add better pictures to their Online dating profiles.
Poses
Many of my clients have absolutely no idea how to pose for pictures. I have been doing this for decades. It is very easy for me to explain to both men and women how to pose.
Locations
I tell my clients that although I can do professional studio portraits for them, pictures that look more natural are better for their Online dating profiles. I typically do outdoor portrait photo shoots in local parks but I have also done photo shoots for clients inside their houses or in their backyards.
Posting pictures of yourself doing the things that you love to do is always good. For example, one recent client had a passion for running. So I took pictures of her jogging down the sidewalk in her neighborhood. Of course, I also took pictures of her relaxing on the couch reading a magazine in her house and other casual pictures.
Many More Views
The very first client who hired me to do her photo shoot to update her Online dating profile pictures was actually excited to report back to me a couple of weeks later with an update.
She told me that before adding the new pictures to her Online dating profile, a total of only four men had viewed her profile in the previous nine months. Then she added just a few of the pictures that I took of her. Suddenly her profile had nearly 14,000 views.
Photo Tips
In addition to taking new pictures of them, some clients have also asked me to choose which existing pictures they should remove from their profiles.
1) Remove
I typically tell them to quickly remove:
[] bathroom mirror selfies
[] distant photos
[] very old pictures
[] photos of themselves hiding behind a tree
[] all of the pictures they don’t appear in
2) Group Photos
I also make sure to tell the women, particularly, to not break the most important rule of profile pictures; never use a group photo as your main profile picture.
3) Smoking
Even worse, I often see people post pictures of themselves holding a cigarette in nearly every profile picture and then claim to be non-smokers. If you are a smoker, simply own up to it.
4) Bad Usernames
Another mistake that people make is when they choose a username like “Always Smiling” and then only post pictures of themselves frowning. It sounds made up but I see it all the time.
5) Kids
One more mistake that I constantly see is when women only post pictures of themselves with small children and then claiming to not have any. If you have no children but you like to spend most of your free time with your nieces and nephews then simply write about that in your profile instead of posting pictures of other people’s kids. Otherwise it is very misleading and disconcerting.
These all seem like obvious, common sense types of things. However, I see my clients make these mistakes all the time.
Profile Mistakes
There are many other mistakes that singles make when creating their profiles that have nothing to do with their pictures. I point these things out to them when they ask me to view their profiles for a critique.
1) Moving
One example is when people move. They relocate to a new city, state or country for a job and forget to update their location on their dating profile. Again, it sounds ridiculous but people make this mistake over and over.
2) Birthdays
Most dating apps do not allow you to change your birthday after you have selected one. Some people don’t know how to select their correct date of birth on dating apps.
They write in their profiles that their displayed age is wrong. This makes them look incredibly lazy, clumsy, incompetent, unintelligent, dishonest or careless. In any case, it is a big red flag.
When I notice a client make this mistake, I always tell her to simply delete her existing profile and create a new one with her real date of birth. It generally only takes a few minutes on most dating apps; especially if you simply copy and paste your profile description from the old profile into the new one.
3) Blank Profiles
Another mistake that people–especially women–make is to skip writing anything about themselves in their profiles as they mistakenly think that men don’t read. To me, a blank profile is another red flag.
In my opinion, it indicates that the woman is either too lazy to fill out her profile, she thinks that men can’t read, she doesn’t know what she is looking for, she can’t speak English, she is not really serious about trying to meet someone or perhaps she is merely a scammer living on the other side of the world and waiting to ask people for money.
Profile Critiques
Many of my clients have asked me to critique their profiles. It does take quite a bit of time to go through them. I look through their pictures and read their profile details. Then I give them my feedback about certain changes they should make. I have started charging a separate fee for this added service.