Online Dating Profile Picture Questions

My inbox has been overflowing with questions about online dating profile pictures. This post will clear up a few things for you.

A bunch of you emailed me and asked about how to get a good online dating profile picture.

You can read about specific profile pictures to put up here.)

What I want to do for you now is go over some things to do with your pictures so you end up with images that you can use.

Online Dating Profile Picture Tips and Tricks

Grooming: Women pay attention to the little things far more than men do. And while you don’t have to be hot, you do have to be well groomed. Pluck your eyebrows to shape them, be especially careful to get rid of strangling hairs below your main eyebrow line.

If you have nose hairs sticking out of your nose, for God’s sake cut them. Same with hairs growing out of our ears or from any moles—get rid of them. If your picture shows your neckline, shave the hair on the back of your head that trails down your neck. Make sure your face is clean and moisturized. Yeah, I know some of this should go without saying, but you’d be surprised what guys overlook.

Before you take pictures for your profile, make sure you're well groomed. Get rid of any mutant hairs and honestly, makeup is a good idea if you have bad skin.

Your own worst critic:
Your pictures probably aren’t as bad as you think they are. Most of us are our own worst critics. I have a disfigured ear from years of fighting, my nose is crooked from being broken, I have scars on my face from cuts. I have a mono-brow that I have to pluck every other day at minimum. I’m starting to get ‘old people’ spots on my face and I have a healthy mole on the side of my nose. My bulbous nose sprawls across my face when I smile. Women don’t seem to notice any of this, or it doesn’t seem to matter.

Opting for a real photo-shoot for you profile pictures:
First, a word of warning: If you make it obvious that you did a real photoshoot, women are instinctively going to wonder what is wrong with you–both mentally and physically. So don’t make it obvious.

You want the pictures to appear natural. That means no stupid backgrounds or pictures of yourself trying to look sexy. Don’t have pictures up that have a clean background either, make the background a normal city street or something.

That said, with the help of a decent photographer, you can look 5 years younger and 15 pounds lighter. You can pay a pro to take your picture. If you live in a university town, you can find a student who is willing to do it for cheap, or nothing. If you go on Craigslist and look for a photographer (or if you post your own ad), you can often find someone willing to do a shoot with you just for the experience and the addition to their portfolio. At the least you should get it at a quarter of the price you’d have to pay a pro.

Cheating with a photo-editor:
Photoshop and other photo editing programs are a gift. The idea here isn’t to change the way you look, but to make yourself look like you do on your best day. That’s fair.

Use them to take the bags out from under your eyes, soften your wrinkles, and clear up your zits. Don’t go overboard, you don’t want to false advertise. But making yourself look as good as you do on your best day is fair. It’s not like you always have dark circles under your eyes and a pimples on your forehead, so get rid of them in your pictures.

I’ll get back to you in a couple of weeks here on the blog. I’m going to work on my face-to-face seduction for a bit and don’t know how much time I’ll have to write. Email me with questions though, and I’ll get back to you.

In the meantime, follow these tips and you’ll be on your way to having a great main picture for your online dating profile picture.

Talk soon– JT

You might want to check these posts out too:
The two profile pictures you must put up.

I made a page for you here that has my best posts on online dating profile pictures.

My most recent post about pictures with examples of the top profile pictures.