Taking your primary online dating profile picture

Photography for dating websites

One of the most important parts of your profile is your primary photo. It is here where there is the highest potential for error. And, fortunately for us, it is here where the vast majority of men make the most ridiculous mistakes.

In a book that chronicled how fashion has always been, until recently, a matter of class emulation, Quentin Bell wrote “The history of fashionable dress is tied to the competition between classes, in the first place the emulation of the aristocracy by the bourgeoisie and then the more extended competition which results from the ability of the proletariat to compete with the middle classes. Implicit in the whole is a system of sartorial morality dependent upon pecuniary standards of value.”(Ridley, Matt. “The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature.” Penguin Books Ltd., 1993.)

Picture Technical Data

How to maximize your photo’s Aspect Ratio and Image Size

Here’s a little trick that dramatically increase your conversion rate (the number of girls who see your profile, and contact you). Fortunately for us, most people are desperately unaware of how the image size and the aspect ratio affect the quality of your pictures.

In the below image, notice how only the guy in the last profile used a picture size that utilized the entirety of the canvas allowed on Match.com. The other three men submitted photos that were too small, too wide, or too long. See how the guy on the end just seems to “stick out” more?

The dating profile picture should have an aspect ratio that matches the online dating website.

You need to find out the maximum image display size that your dating website allows for you primary photo. Match.com, for example, allows a maximum image size of 300 pixels x 350 pixels. So these are the constraints of the canvas you will use to convey your personality to the girl. If you flip through dating website photos, you will see that the vast majority of people have posted images that are either too long or too wide. Hence, they are not using as much space as they could be to convey an emotion with their photo.

For Match.com, for example, you want to submit a photo that occupies a canvas of 900 pixels x 1050 pixels. “Wait a minute,” you say. “You just told me a minute ago that the maximum resolution on Match.com is 300 pixels x 350 pixels!” Yes that’s true. But, don’t forget, all dating website will down-sample any picture you send them. When you submit your photo, an application reduces the image size, the file size, and the image quality. This cannot be avoided. So in order to ensure that we get the highest quality photo, occupying the most possible space, we need to submit a photo that is larger than the area that it will eventually occupy.

If you are not familiar with (or do not own) a version of Adobe Photoshop (or some equivalent photo editing application) that’s ok. Because these days, there are free photo programs online that work almost as good. I go through a brief tutorial in the next section.