The easiest way to get a great professional quality photo for your profile for free is by simply using your smart phone and doing a couple of little tweaks on the picture. You totally can do it yourself!
DIY professional quality photos for your profile
If you decided to spend any time on online dating at all, even if you are prepared to spend 30 minutes on searching profiles on a website for singles, your first investment of this amount of time will pay tenfold — if you do it right.
And if you fail to invest these 30 minutes, then nothing will be working for you. You simply will waste all the time on the dating site and only become frustrated and angry, which is not good for your health (ask your doctor).
Of course, I am talking about your profile photo!
I cannot stop emphasizing the importance of a quality photo for your profile, and if you haven’t given it much thought until now, read on. I am about to uncover for you the greatest mystery of all questions men have about dating Russian women.
Case study: Pitiful Pete
I am amazed at men who pay hundreds of dollars to chat to women on Elenasmodels.com and then put a horrible photo in the profile. What’s the point of buying a membership and not putting any effort into the picture, you aren’t going to get any good results anyway? It’s just a waste of money and time!
One of them, let’s call him Pete (*not his real name), posted a few very long comments on the blog complaining about women not being “real” and even telling all ladies he was writing to, “it’s a scam site, I know it, no real people”. And you know what? The only girl who was talking to him (and also complaining that there were no real people on the site, funny enough) also had a terrible photo in her profile!
Yes, Pete’s photo was absolutely horrendous! It was a selfie (we never recommend selfies, unless you are a Russian girl who takes about 200 of them daily and knows how to do it right), it made his face to appear deformed and he also looked like a burn victim with how the colours turned up.
When I saw his photo in search results one day, I was shocked, why someone would be posting a picture like this? I looked at his profile and while he wasn’t the most handsome man on Earth (you don’t need to be handsome to marry a Russian woman, they are actually scared of highly attractive guys and think they are players), he would definitely be able to attract some lovely women if he did thee DIY professional quality photo that will only take you 30 minutes to make.
And once you’ve done it, it will work for you forever in dating Russian girls. They simply cannot help it but want to see your profile and find out more about you, once they see such DIY profile picture.
How to get a perfect DIY picture
The best thing is that you can get it totally by yourself! Or, if you wish (and it’s easier), ask a friend to help. But you are able to get a great picture without asking for anyone’s assistance.
1. Your smart phone has a time delay option.
2. On iPhone you just need to open the camera and click on the shutter icon on the top.
3. Then select the delay time, 3 or 10 seconds.
4. Once you’ve done it, find a place to put your phone on, so that it’s stable. Tripod is the best, but anything will work — you just need to put your phone against something that will support it. It can be a few books put on top of each other, for instance.
5. Ready? Press the shooting button and get yourself positioned. The phone shows the countdown 10 to 1 and then takes a burst of 10 photos.
Countdown shows how many seconds left until the photos will be taken.
6. See all the pictures in the burst (button “Select” on the bottom) and pick the ones you like, delete all the rest.
7. Repeat until you get the picture you like.
So, you don’t even need to ask anyone to help you! If you are shy, it’s a great option.
iPhone7+ has the option called “portrait”. It also has the time delay function. The quality of these pictures is really like photos you get from a professional photographer!
Now let’s get the picture perfect
Since you are doing it anyway, you can just as well improve the quality of your photos, as professional photographers always do.
This way you can improve imperfect lighting and give it more depth. This is how professionals get their photos to look that good!
There are instruments for editing colours — just click the button “Edit” on the bottom.
Tap the photo and tap on the icon “Edit”.
You can cut your photos, apply filters or edit manually.
Filters allow you to quickly change the look of your photos.
You can pick from automatic filters vivid, vivid warm (I like this one), vivid cool etc. Play with colours and see which image you like the most. Once you are happy, tap “Done”. Or tap “Cancel” if nothing seems right for you.
There is also the option to edit manually. I personally prefer to first manually edit the images to make them brighter and add colour (it adds contrast and saturation).
To edit colours or light, simply tap on the icon and pull the levers to the right to amplify intensity or make photos brighter.
You can also edit manually within the “Colour” and “Light” options. For instance, you can only lighten shadows, if there are harsh shadows because of the bright light. To do that, tap on “Light” and then select “Shadows”.
Play with your images and see how to make them look brighter and more intense. If you made changes and don’t like them, click the button “Edit” again and choose “Revert”. It will change the image to the original again.
It’s not Photoshop; you are not changing anything essentially; it’s just what photographers call “Filters” and it’s the tool they always use to make even dull photos appear vibrant.
Before & After. It took less than 1 minute to edit this photo on iPhone. First I increased the Light and the Colour through manual editing (pull the lever to the right) and then applied Vivid Warm filter.
Wait! Did you follow other tips about making your profile picture perfect?
Here is a quick recap:
- Make sure you wear a collared shirt and trousers. Suit is the best (here is why). White shirt is the best; but light blue or pink are also fine.
- Smile! You look so much more friendlier and approachable this way, as well as happier and more successful. Your should appear relaxed, not stressed or uncomfortable.
- Background add tons of information about you! Best is to make your shot outside, as it will give you nice lighting and you can find a really picturesque nature shot. Go to Instagram.com and see what photos with people you get when searching for “#nature” or “#travel”. Just copy! (Obviously, you need to ensure your face is big enough in the picture to see you.)
- If you are doing it at home, the background should look clean and tidy. Messy shots show you as a person who cannot get his life in order.
A few more tips:
- Water or blue skies as a background are always a safe bet.
- If it’s a nature shot and you are standing in the water, obviously, you won’t be wearing a suit. But still, dress nicely: a polo shirt and nice shorts, for instance.
Because you are doing the photo yourself, you have all the time in the world to get it right. Do one shot today and you may try again another day. You probably are going to get a better picture every time you do it. Taking photos is a skill, just like any other.
Because the women are not able to see you, they can only judge you by your photos. If you have a bright and colourful picture in your profile, it will stand out in search results. Let’s face it, most men’s pics are of a pretty low quality. If you take 30 minutes to take a better picture, you will be outperforming 90% of other guys who didn’t read this article and still post bathroom selfies.
Compare these 2 photos, which one do you think the women would prefer? (It’s the same guy, by the way.)
I know I would prefer the guy who smiles! Most women would be like me.
Get the woman you always wanted
Because you can!
Seriously, this is such an easy tweak, I don’t understand why more guys don’t use it!
Try to play with photos now and see how it goes. It’s fun! And it will help you to get the girl of your dreams.
Read also:
- Is it possible for me to meet a good Russian woman for marriage?
- 10 deadly sins of dating Russian women
- Profile secrets revealed! What Russian, Ukrainian women REALLY want to know?
- Why all Russian women want to leave
Thanks, Elena, for teaching me how to create a better “selfie” using the tools available on most phones!! I knew Russian women were smart from years ago! That is why you state. “(we never recommend selfies, unless you are a Russian girl who takes about 200 of them daily and knows how to do it right).”
Roger, my pleasure! 🙂