Dating Profiles: Should You Hire a Professional Photographer?

Dating Apps Are Here To Stay

Dating apps are a very common way that people connect nowadays. Having really nice photos that show off how awesome you are will help you stand out from the crowd! You’ll look better than just adding a filter and really show off your best self in the very best lighting possible. You will attract more attention with professional photos and make genuine connections by highlighting your personality and your interests. You may already have accumulated great photos of yourself over time and your profile is already doing great. If so, you may not need professional photos, but they still sure are fun to have! If you’re using a handful of not flattering pictures your friend took of you at parties, maybe consider investing into your image. Need more reasons to think about hiring a professional photographer for your dating profile? Read on!

Look Your Best

When you're looking for a potential romantic connection online, your profile picture is probably the most important factor. After all, it's the first thing someone looking at your profile will see—and if it's not attractive, it might be the last thing they see. That's why more and more people are turning to professional photographers to have their dating profile pictures taken. You need to catch someone’s eye within the first couple of seconds that they see your photos or they are going to swipe right past! A professional photographer will know how to compose and capture a photo that draws in the viewer and makes them want to know more.

One of the main benefits of hiring a professional photographer is that they can make sure your photos look as good as possible. From finding the right backdrop to selecting the right editing techniques, professionals understand the importance of flawless lighting, angles, composition, quality editing, and story-telling. With their experience, they can make sure your profile photos showcase the best version of you and are enticing for your potential matches.

Photos That Represent YOU

The photos in your dating profile should not only look good, but showcase your amazing personality and interests. You don’t only want nice looking portraits of you in there. You’ll want pictures that match your vibe and show off your hobbies/interests. A professional photographer will be able to incorporate your interests into the photos and be able to set a tone for the photos that matches your personality. People connect with authenticity, so be authentic! If you’re really into mountain biking, for example, wouldn’t it be awesome to have some super cool photos of you on your bike?

Have a conversation with your photographer prior to the shoot so they can get to know you and plan out the locations, props, poses, etc. that are going to highlight your strengths to make you look amazing and interesting! This step is very important so that they can best advise on locations, outfits, props, etc. to get the photos that match your style and have a general idea of the vibe these photos could have.

Have Fun Doing It!

Additionally, professional photographers can help make the photoshoot session fun and relaxing. It may feel awkward to be hiring a photographer for your dating profile, but it doesn’t have to be! Whether you have a hard time posing in front of the camera or you feel awkward when taking selfies, photographers make the process easier by suggesting poses, giving you direction on how to pose, and providing encouragement. Plus, photographers are generally very fun people to be around! They do much more than just press a button. Many photographers even offer multiple options for pictures, so you can have a variety to choose from when deciding which photos to post.

Overall, a professional photographer can guarantee that your dating profile pictures will stand out on dating apps. If you're looking for a meaningful connection, having amazing profile pictures can give you a head start in the dating game.

Do it for the lighting!

Portrait photography lighting not only accentuates the best features of your face and body, but it can also make you look more attractive. Lighting is a major component when it comes to taking quality portraits. With the right use of light, your face can appear more sculptural, shadows can be used to create form and dimension, and the entire look can be elevated with a touch of glamor.

Proper lighting can accentuate certain aspects of your face, such as your eyes or cheekbones, by bringing out the highlights and creating a sense of depth. This provides a flattering representation of your features, while also making you look more attractive. With the right photography lighting, you can also create visual impact. A simple backlight can add drama to your photos by separating you from the background, while softer lighting can give you a more romantic feel. A professional will know how to work with lighting and angles to take flattering images that your matches will go crazy over! They may also have experience using external light sources like flashes to have even more control over the lighting scenario at your photoshoot. If you are not planning on hiring a professional photographer, then at least take some time to understand lighting, this alone will significantly improve the photos you take.

In addition to making you more attractive, portrait photography lighting can also help to capture a more natural look. Even with the right tools, a photographer might still have difficulty capturing the subtle nuances that lend to a more true-to-life representation. However, lighting can help the photographer to focus on certain elements and create a softer, more realistic representation of your features. With the right lighting, facial expressions, imperfections, and highlight points can be highlighted to create a more authentic representation.

Phone Cameras: Good But Not Great

Phone cameras keep getting better and better. There are honestly scenarios where they take very professional-looking photos, but they all have some setbacks that a professional camera addresses, especially in portraits. I’ll get a little technical here so skip ahead if you’re not interested. Phone cameras are wide angle or zoomed out. The way objects appear on wide angle cameras is a bit distorted to how you would normally see someone. To really see the effects of this, take a picture with the wide angle mode on your phone right up close to you nose and see how goofy you look. Shooting regularly will not take it to this extreme, but you see the point I’m getting at and maybe can imagine what happens to the look of the photo if you back up and zoom instead. With the fixability of lens swapping on a DLSR, your photographer can use the right amount of zoom to instantly take a more flattering picture of you. Plus, just about every phone picture out there is taken at the same wide angle perspective. Posting photos with zoomed in focal lengths will immediately stand out in a sea of cellphone pictures. I know what you’re going to say, “new phones have zoom modes on them”, and while that is true, those zoom cameras are typically much lower quality and have less dynamic range, not giving nearly the level of quality you’d see from the main camera. Plus, there is another thing that phone cameras haven’t gotten quite right. It’s the natural-looking bokeh (or blurred out background) created by using large-sensor cameras and quality lenses. While digital blur (or portrait mode) does exist and can give decent results under the right conditions, it does not look nearly as good as optical bokeh and can often create uncanny looking edges around the subject, especially around their hair. This will never happen with a professional camera because it uses good old fashion physics to create the blur. A professional camera can also introduce blurred out foreground elements to add further depth and interest to a photo. When using zoom lenses, the blur is drastically increased, giving such a nice quality look to the background and making you look like a model! I could go on an on about things like amount of available light affecting shutter speeds, burst shooting, uncompressed raw files, lens and camera stabilization etc. that a pro camera has over a phone camera, but you don’t want to be here forever. Maybe one day phones will catch up, but that day is not today.

The Editing

The editing is where great photos come to life! Your photographer will not just be throwing a filter on top of the photo and calling it a day. They will refine the photo to look amazing and stand out beautifully! if the work they put into crafting and capturing great photos is like baking a cake, then the editing they do is like the icing on top that makes it look so delicious! Find a photographer with a style that matches your vibe and during your initial conversation with them, you can communicate the overall tone you’d like from the photos which will be brought to life in the edits. Below are some examples of what professional editing can do to your photos:

In conclusion, a hiring a professional photographer will greatly improve the impressions you give potential matches online. It can make you stand out from others on these apps and help you get more and better matches! If you can afford to hire one, it is a great investment in your romantic future.