The Effects of Angle
Published on September 3, 2007
Today we got together with a friend who needed some help with his dating profile. In particular, he didn’t have any photographs that he felt were appropriate for his purpose. The best photos he had always seemed to involve his arm around a woman and he wanted to avoid posting those (a wise decision I suspect). My wife is currently taking photography classes so it seemed to work out perfectly: he gets new pictures that won’t put-off potential dates and she gets to have a little fun with a “model”.
In preparation for our get-together, I started viewing some dating profiles online to see if there were any photos that looked particularly good. Honestly, after viewing a few dozen, most pictures look the same to me. However, one person caught my attention in an odd way: it was a guy who took all his photographs as if he were below the camera. I was disappointed to see that his dating description started out with the all-too-common: “I’ve failed at online dating X number of times but thought I would try it again”. As I mention in my guide, being hard on yourself is hardly an attractive trait in any dating situation.
At any rate, we met up with my friend and drove in to the local town. We took a few dozen pictures, several of which I felt turned out great. It was really helpful that my wife knew so much about the importance of light and position. While we were talking between shoots, I mentioned the “photos from above” profile I had looked at and how odd it was. Sure, just about every girl’s picture on MySpace is taken from an odd position above her but I’d never seen a guy use that approach. My wife had some photographic insight on what I’ll call the MySpace Angle for Girls: yes, part of it is about cleavage but there is more to it than that. It is also a submissive angle, an attribute that many guys would find attractive. This, she explained, is why many of her photos of my friend were taken from below: she wanted to give the photographs a masculine/dominant feel. We all had a laugh about how stupid it was that such little details could mean so much but we didn’t change the perspective of the subsequent photos we took.
I have a suspicion that the dating profile I took such an interest in may be failing for reasons that have nothing (really) to do with the person creating it. Not only did he start out fatalistically but also had all his photos taken in a submissive way. This does not seem to be good approach to end up on a date. With a different picture and more positive text, I think his experience could be entirely different. Never forget that your dating profile is your gateway to meeting people (that is, actually ending up on dates!). Make sure it represents you how you want it to in every way.
Author: Brad
Brad initially struggled with online dating but over time became quite successful using it. He met his wife using online dating and has been giving advice and helping people improve their results since 2007. He has written a Free Online Dating Guide to help others find success with online dating. You can learn more about his personal experience using online dating and running this website here.
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