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SWF Seeks Attractive Head Shot

Today's Wall Street Journal features one of the more informative articles about Online Dating that I've seen in a while (see SWF Seeks Attractive Head Shot - subscription required).

The snapshots in personal ads have traditionally been fuzzy and half-baked: Guys standing next to their cars. Or with their shirts off. And of course, the popular "ex crop," a photo featuring the forearm of a significant other who got mostly, but not entirely, cropped out.

I've noticed the exact same things myself! People are really bad photographers, and maybe also they have no clue as to which photo is good and which one is bad. With the increasing popularity of digital cameras, one would think that people would be able to get better photos of themselves for online dating purposes, but so far I haven't seen many.

The WSJ article also mentions the important rule to never appear in a photo with kids unless they're your own. (A lot of men, looking through ads, see a woman with a kid and assume that means it's hers. Women shouldn't have a kid in the photo unless they want men to think they are single moms.)

MatchNet PLC dating services including americansingles.com and jdate.com now let surfers search by "most popular." Not surprisingly, the profiles that pop up first are invariably the hotties, as opposed to people with the most amicably written profiles.

No surprise there. Luckily, when there's a demand for something, entrepreneurs will step up to the plate and attempt to fill it. The article talks about some companies that are trying to make money by offering portraits for online dating.

This will also mean that portrait photographers will have to break one of the traditional rules of the trade, which is to never let the customer have a negative. Increasingly, people will be getting a portrait taken for the sole purpose of acquiring an image file, the digital equivalent of the negative. I suspect this new arrangement will be a win-win situation for both photographers and clients.

posted November 19, 2003