Irish Eyes Are Boring Into My Soul
- Saturday, July 10 2010 @ 09:05 am
- Contributed by: Jet
- Views: 2,987
I recently helped a friend choose the default picture for his online dating profile. It wasn't all that hard, really; while some pictures instantly gave me warm fuzzies, others gave me the chills. After awhile, I began to analyze my gut instinct. What, exactly, separated a good picture from a dud?
Well, for possibly the first time, smiling was not an issue. This guy just doesn't smile much, if ever (I'm working on him, though, and he will smile in a picture someday, I assure you). However, that doesn't mean he had the same expression in every picture. Even if his mouth was in the exact same position, there were pictures where he was smiling more with his eyes and the rest of his face – and really, the difference between a picture where he's smiling with his eyes, and one where he's not, is startling.
So what can we take from this? Simply, looking pleasant makes a big difference. Even if you're self-conscious about your actual smile, try to use pictures that were taken when you were in a good mood. The difference is noticeable, I promise.
But smiling with the eyes wasn't the only factor in play here. At first, I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but then it hit me like a ton of bricks: the major factor in whether a picture was creepy or reassuring was his pose. You see, he had a tendency to look at the camera right on. I'm talking completely squared to the lens, almost confrontational. It was intense, to say the least, and those pictures bore more than a little resemblance to a mug shot.
So what does this mean as we choose our own pictures? Well, while they should be clear shots of your face, you don't want to look like you're going to come crawling out of the monitor. Maybe it's a subconscious primal instinct, like when they tell you not to look dogs directly in the face. Regardless, make sure your intensity is not turned up to eleven.
It also looks slightly less posed when you're angled a bit away. Think of yourself in a social setting, having a conversation with friends. Are you always positioned squarely in front of the person you're chatting with? A picture that's angled just slightly feels candid, more comfortable. And with an angled picture, you can experiment to see if you actually have a “good side.” Sometimes the results can be shocking.
Ultimately, the key to a good picture is that it's inviting, and the best way to create that is to have a good time when the picture is taken. A straight-on photo with a great, genuine smile is better than a posed, self-conscious, angled picture – it's all in the sincerity of the subject.
Well, for possibly the first time, smiling was not an issue. This guy just doesn't smile much, if ever (I'm working on him, though, and he will smile in a picture someday, I assure you). However, that doesn't mean he had the same expression in every picture. Even if his mouth was in the exact same position, there were pictures where he was smiling more with his eyes and the rest of his face – and really, the difference between a picture where he's smiling with his eyes, and one where he's not, is startling.
So what can we take from this? Simply, looking pleasant makes a big difference. Even if you're self-conscious about your actual smile, try to use pictures that were taken when you were in a good mood. The difference is noticeable, I promise.
But smiling with the eyes wasn't the only factor in play here. At first, I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but then it hit me like a ton of bricks: the major factor in whether a picture was creepy or reassuring was his pose. You see, he had a tendency to look at the camera right on. I'm talking completely squared to the lens, almost confrontational. It was intense, to say the least, and those pictures bore more than a little resemblance to a mug shot.
So what does this mean as we choose our own pictures? Well, while they should be clear shots of your face, you don't want to look like you're going to come crawling out of the monitor. Maybe it's a subconscious primal instinct, like when they tell you not to look dogs directly in the face. Regardless, make sure your intensity is not turned up to eleven.
It also looks slightly less posed when you're angled a bit away. Think of yourself in a social setting, having a conversation with friends. Are you always positioned squarely in front of the person you're chatting with? A picture that's angled just slightly feels candid, more comfortable. And with an angled picture, you can experiment to see if you actually have a “good side.” Sometimes the results can be shocking.
Ultimately, the key to a good picture is that it's inviting, and the best way to create that is to have a good time when the picture is taken. A straight-on photo with a great, genuine smile is better than a posed, self-conscious, angled picture – it's all in the sincerity of the subject.
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