How to take photos for your online dating profile - cute photo
I cautioned earlier against posing with people. But animals don’t count against you as much. You can make yourself more appealing by adding some cuteness. You could find a dog to pose with kitten or a cute stuffed animal. Maybe head to the amusement park and pose with one of those giant stuffed gorillas.
I’ll share a rule that I use for taking photos as well as for talking with people. Maintain eye-contact at all times except when you’re looking at something you’re manipulating such as pouring a glass of wine or winding an old-fashion watch. This rule keeps your communication line open with the viewer or conversational partner and makes your actions understandable. Treat the camera lens as a person present in the scene.
However, in this photo I’m stretching that rule. I’m not making eye-contact with the camera nor am I manipulating anything obvious. But since the dog and I are both looking towards the horizon I think it fixes this problem a bit. I’m obviously pondering the nature of life with my canine accomplice. The communication here is purposeful and understandable to the viewer. But in any case, even if it takes the viewer out of the scene I think the pose is interesting enough to be worth it.
That said, in reality, if you look closely, I’m actually looking down at my iPhone so I can frame the photo I’m shooting. I guess that gives the photo another dimension though I doubt many people on a dating site would notice.
Remember, an easy way to control color is to look for monochromatic backgrounds (think walls) and then introduce a single color. That’s what’s going on here. The wall behind me is brown (which is close to monochrome), I’m wearing black and the dog I’m posing with is monochromatic - even his collar is black. That allows the blue to pop out.
I’ve framed the photo from an unusual perspective. Though no professional would ever frame it that way, I feel it tells people viewing my profile that I like to communicate in interesting ways.
By the way, this dog was just sitting on a bench minding his own business with no owner in site. He’s not my dog and he wants you to know this photo is not an endorsement of Charisma Arts. Ha.