You've signed up for an online dating site, but you don't have a decent picture of yourself, what do you do? Do you throw on a questionable one in the hope that people will see past it and love your profile? If you're being honest with yourself, you know that in your online quest for love, the first thing you look at is the picture.
So, how do you take the perfect profile picture for online dating sites? We thought the best thing to do would be to speak to a photography expert so we sent Rod from The Dating Show to have a chat with Joanna.
If you'd like to listen to their chat, you can do here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zCSZEiRx2Y
Or, if you prefer to read it, you can do below.
J: I think the best thing to do is to try and think about what you want to portray about yourself. What would show your personality or your unique aspects to your personality? So, if you're more of an outdoors person then to take a photograph of yourself outdoors, you could show your interests or just bring your personality to life through the photograph.
R: Is it a good idea to sort of have it straight on, or at an angle???
J: I think it's really frustrating when you're obviously looking to see someone in the photo and it's quite difficult to see them properly so I would say that it's always good to try and show your face pretty clearly.
Also, you know that doesn't have to be a straight on shot looking straight into the camera, because sometimes that can look a bit weird and a little bit like a passport photo, so it's better to ensure you can be seen fully in the photograph but to share yourself in a natural light.
R: And what about lighting, is that important? Do you need to pay attention to that???
J: Lighting is always important in photography. It's probably the most important thing in photography to get the lighting right. Lighting can have some really great effects as well so think about your lighting in terms of making sure you're not very illuminated by light. It can look a bit weird like a passport photography which is a very flat light, but you use lighting to help invoke a mood in photography. Perhaps think about lighting coming from a side angle or lighting coming from, if you imagine a clock face, lighting coming from about 1 o'clock rather than lighting from straight on. Definitely try to avoid shooting directly into the light because that doesn't always create a great photograph.
R: And what about black and white? Would that be a good idea? It's quite arty.
J: Yeah, I think so, black and white photography is very trendy and it has a reportage feel to it. Black and white photography is quite good and getting clarity for an image, so again if you're trying to convey yourself and to show yourself clearly then black and white photography is good. It's not always to take black and white photograph though, so perhaps you could take your photograph in full colour and then there are loads of Photoshop style programmes and programmes on iPad apps and things like that. You could then change your photograph to black and white and just sort of play around a bit really.
R: They say the camera never lies. Is that true???
J: That's not true at all, you can use so many tricks with an image now. You know from all the things you can use, you can fundamentally change a photograph quite easily and you can make fake photographs very easily. I'm afraid that isn't a true statement at all. Obviously photography is a great way of showing you and your personality and I think just try and get across who you are in the photograph. That will always be to your advantage.
This chat is an excerpt from January's Dating Show. If you'd like to listen to the full Dating Show, you can do here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsOEVY727vU&list=SPYlbYTQk2qlZdopk4uLpSSb52CiPCPmd0&index=1