How to take and choose effective online dating profile photos.

Photos massively increase your chances of being clicked on

It is an accepted fact that an online dating profile with a photo or photos will attract anywhere between 3 and 6 times the amount of visitors that of one with no photo. Even a poor photo is better than none at all. Most people that use an online Christian dating site like this one will usually go straight to the profiles with photos and ignore till later those that don't have one. So we encourage you to put one on. We at ChristiansUK see many photos, some are better than others and one or two have made us laugh and we wondered what on earth the person was thinking when they uploaded it.

In depth on photography for online dating profiles

We already have an article on why you should have a photo on your profile and we don’t want to repeat what we said there but in this article we want to go into a bit more depth about how you should choose and compose your photos.

Recruit a friend to help

Firstly, having purchased or borrowed a decent digital camera and learned the basics of how it works, you will need to recruit a friend to help you set up some photos. Choose someone who understands cameras and is able to frame shots to bring out the best in you.

Choose your clothes

Secondly, you need to choose what clothes to wear for your photos. We recommend that you choose a formal outfit and an informal one as this shows both sides of your personality. This also shows that you can look glamorous/formal when you want to and are also able to be relaxed and informal. Someone looking go to on a date with you will be looking to see what they might expect when they meet you in person so a photo that shows you as you are now is the best.

Go outside if possible

Thirdly, if the weather is good and the sun is bright, go outside to take your photo-shoot. This means that the sunlight will make you look more natural than artificial light. The colours in your face and clothes will also be more flattering. When setting up the shots be aware of the shadows and make sure that your face is not obscured by them. Avoid looking into or towards the sun as this will make you squint and this is not good as people will want to see your eyes. A digital camera will let you see the results of each shot immediately so there is no excuse not to keep trying until you get it right. Make sure that when you view each shot in the LCD view-screen that you are able to see the shot properly as bright sunlight can make the picture fade with some cameras.

Relax and have fun!

Fourthly, while you are having these photos taken remember to relax and have fun. When the camera takes these pictures have it in mind that your potential partner will be seeing these pictures so try to let your personality shine!

Choose, crop and re-size

Fifthly, when your photos are taken and uploaded to your PC remember that you can either upload them as they are and we will crop and re-size them, or you can do this yourself. If you crop and re-size them yourself remember that on our site we need them to be 200 pixels wide by 280 pixels tall. If you think that a “pixel” is somehow related to a small Irish fairy then you probably should send us the photos! The final photos should be either cropped to the right size or the area you want to be viewed should be roughly a vertical oblong shape. Get your friends to give a final approval to any photos you upload as this will save any disappointment.

Finally, at Christians we offer a full photo-shoot through Newid studios. There is a tab on the main menu which tells you more about this and you can also contact is directly about this (UK members only).