Profile Pictures and You - Using Portrait Pictures for Online Dating Success in

Portrait of a young white man, dressed casually against patterned wallpaper during a shoot in Boston's Beacon Hill Neighborhood.

Everyone wants to look better in pictures and the internet is rich with tips about how to get the best angle on your selfies or how to minimize problem areas (balding: put a cat on your head in a humorous fashion, that's what I plan on doing for my next shoot since my own profile photos are pretty lackluster for a Boston wedding photographer, just too afraid of breaking everyone's camera).

One thing that can really put your best face forward is a professional portrait shoot full of great lighting, posing, makeup and fashion that will show off the very best possible version of you with a Boston-based portrait photographer. On social media this can be great for getting that initial burst of attention, but it's not actually the best strategy. Why is that?

Because as much as people crave attraction, they're also looking to make an authentic connection. So having pictures that are a little to poised and polished, while making you look amazing, can also make you look fake (and everyone's already worried enough about phonies on the internet). So what can you do to make sure you capture attention but also keep up their interest? Here are a few tips...

1) Variety: As I said up top, a few professional pictures (like those shot by yours truly) can really draw in the eye and make your profile stand out, but you'll also want to have some casual snapshots that show a more "real" version of yourself. Combine these two with a few carefully selected selfies and you're showing people you at your realest and at your best, sure to be winning combination.

2) Creativity: Letting your hair down and showing off your imagination can be just as compelling as being authentic. You could go in costume as a favorite character, recreate a scene from a film/book or even get into something more abstract. They're showing off a different side of you that might not have otherwise been immediately apparent, this can spark off conversations and really help to drive engagement with your profile and then soon you'll need a great Boston wedding photographer like Ryan Richardson Photography.

3) Cheat: Not every professional photograph has to look like it's ready for the pages of Vogue, many Instagram models and celebrities have mastered the "staged selfie" where a lot of effort goes into making things look very effortless. It's an approach you can adopt as well, with images that are designed to show off your best side but also look easy at the same time - perhaps it's even as simple as going a bit lighter on the retouching or a little messier in the presentation. There are a lot of ways you can cleverly hide your work from a casual observer.

I hope this guide has been helpful, I know that I'm going to try out a few of the tips I've offered. Good luck out there!

A natural moment behind the scenes, a young woman adjusts her hair while laughing during a shoot in Beacon Hill.

Ryan Richardson is a wedding and engagement photographer serving Boston and beyond; including Cape Cod Weddings, New England Weddings, Massachusetts Weddings and Rhode Island Weddings.