Your first time. 

Do you remember it? 

The first time you went on Tinder to create a profile. The thought of turning your smartphone into an endless date-getting machine. And all of that from the comfort of your home. 

Until the fist of reality smacked you out of your dream:

“This crap doesn’t work.”

Luckily, with just a few tweaks to your profile and pictures, you CAN change your results drastically. 

And who knows… maybe your little naughty dream might turn into reality.

Ready to find out?

The 5 pillars of good Tinder pictures (ignore at your own risk)

Quality is king 

High-quality, good lighting, your handsome face visible. This is key for your pictures. Especially for the first picture women see. There should be no distractions. The picture should highlight you, and everything else should be blurred in the background (or at least not draw attention away from you).  

You can include group pictures for your other pictures, but it must be clear who you are. If not, delete.

Natural and not posed

Your pictures should look as natural as possible. This can include random shots taken by a friend or situations in which you are immersed in an activity. The worst thing you can do to your profile is to have only posed pictures. 

This also means you cannot just upload pictures taken with a DLSR. You’ll look like a try-hard. Always add pictures taken with a smartphone as well.

Everything that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood

You know how women immediately notice small details about your appearance? They see shit you wouldn’t even think about in a hundred years. That’s why it’s essential to look closely at your pictures and remove anything that could be associated as unfavorable. 

Suppose you’re sweating like a waterfall around your armpits; trash that pic. Is your trousers fly open? Zip it up!

Show your personality

Avoid having only static, boring shots. Express genuine emotion. Take pictures of you in action. Do things you enjoy, like hobbies, and get photos of you while doing them. 

Your pictures will be way more exciting and give women an easy way to ask questions about why while texting. It’s a win-win. 

Look your best

Finally, show your best self. Get a nice haircut, trim your beard, and wear fitting clothes. Even better: try making the clothes fit the environment you take your pictures in. 

If you think there’s a lot to do… you’re right. But think about it this way: once you have a great profile, you’ll get matches and dates while asleep. It’s worth it. 

The secret to making your Tinder pictures irresistible for her

Now you know what makes a good picture. 

But how do you know what pictures to put in your profile?

Which ones will give you the best results? 

And in which order do you place them? 

It’s true: the way you present your pictures can give you totally different results. So, let’s look at how you can get the best results possible.

Let your profile pictures tell a story

The best profiles tell a story of what it would be like to date you. 

In other words: 

You want to reveal different facets of your life and give her a glimpse of what type of person you are. The most optimal way to arrange your profile pictures goes as follows:

• First, a high-quality close-up portrait of yourself
• Second, a high-quality full-body picture of you

I say high quality because these are the two pictures you should take with a DSLR camera, not your smartphone, if possible. If they look really good, even from a smartphone camera, go ahead. It’s better to use what you already have and test. 

Then, the rest of your Tinder photos should be about your hobbies or whatever activities you do. Show her what kind of person you are. A lot of guys use images with a pet to display their ‘caring’ side. While these pictures work well, I recommend only doing that if it’s your pet. But that’s up to you.   

Here is an example profile: 

Tinder picture mistakes that kill your matches

Just as there are rules for good pictures, there are common traps you should avoid. 

Remember, women pick up on tiny details. Imagine your first few pictures are great; she’s hooked… and suddenly sees something that immediately turns her off.

All the built-up… gone. For nothing. So here are the most common mistakes you need to avoid: 

• Don’t hide your face. No cappy, no sunglasses, no masks, etc.
• No alcohol. It’s associated with low cognitive abilities, i.e., she’ll think you’re an idiot. 
• No selfies. For the sake of your future matches: don’t post selfies. Ever.
• Don’t wear the same outfit. They’ll notice it and think you’re lazy.
• No pics with one woman. She might be your girlfriend and you the as*shole.
• No pics with children. Dating as a single dad? You can, but keep the details for later.
• Don’t wear printed shirts. It’s ok to be a Dragonball Z fan, but hold back for now. 

Here’s a masterclass in shitty Tinder pictures in just one photograph: 

How to look best in your Tinder pictures: 7 Hacks to boost your attractiveness instantly

Alright, you eliminated the mistakes.

Now, let’s boost your sex appeal and your pictures overall. You can use several hacks to look better or appear more confident. I learned some of these hacks from photographers and others from fashion designers. 

But most importantly, you can use them, too! 

Get a haircut that suits your facial structure

Unless you’ve hit the genetic lottery (I haven’t), not every hairstyle will look good on you.  

Depending on the shape of your face, specific hairstyles will look better on you. In other words: you’re only one haircut away from looking more attractive. The following video explains the different types of facial shapes and fitting hairstyles perfectly:

Choose the right camera angle

Angles can completely change the way women perceive you. 

If you take a picture slightly above your eye line, you’ll look more feminine. But slightly below is dominant.

The best way to explain what I mean is by showing it to you. Look at these two pictures:

The same person, but different camera angles. 

Top image: Looks like he’s about to receive a c*m shot (his words, not mine).

Bottom image: Angle slightly from below. Looks more masculine. 

So, for the sake of your future matches, don’t take pictures from an above angle. 

The same is true for pictures taken from below. The slight angle is excellent. Too much makes you look like a threat. 

Choose the right colors for your outfit

This was a long-time kryptonite of mine: combining colors.

Heck, it’s still not easy. But the good news: there are two simple rules to make sure your outfit always looks dope:  

• Wear neutral colors. These are black, white, beige, gray, or dark blue. You can combine these with any other color, and it will look good.
• Keep the maximum amount of colors at 3. Breaking this rule is possible, but you risk looking like a warning sign if you’re unsure what you’re doing. 

I recently saw this video on YouTube, and I think it’s pretty good if you’re looking for more tips on this topic. It also gives you an idea of what you should include in your wardrobe to create striking outfits: 

Crop pictures for a winning composition

Look at this picture:

Now see what happens when we crop it:

Can you feel the difference in the second picture?

That’s because good composition helps the viewers focus on a certain point in the picture, even if a lot is happening in the background. For Tinder, this should be your face. 

But WAIT.

There is a common mistake that can take the focus of the subject away.

See what happens when we zoom in even more on the picture above:

At first glance, this close-up picture might look better to some. 

But his knee and quad stick out at the edge of the picture. While we all appreciate a well-trained quad muscle (don’t skip leg day!), this causes a shift in focus away from his face because his leg is so prominent. 

So whenever you have a body part or any noticeable element near or right at the edge of your picture, be aware it might destroy the focal point you wanted to achieve. 

Don’t worry. Details like these might sound overwhelming, but you don’t need a Ph.D. in Photography to start getting matches. 

Back to picture composition:

The rule of thirds is a basic rule to make sure your pictures have a good composition.

Smile or not smile? A surprising answer

A study at Stanford discovered something surprising: 

A big smile is often associated with higher dominance. This is contradictory to the belief that less dominant men smile more often. The main takeaway for you is:

If you want to appear more dominant, show your BIG smile. But, if you want to look more intelligent and trustworthy, a smaller smile is better. Keep that in mind when taking different pictures, so you can adapt your smile to what you’re trying to convey in your photo. 

The power of black and white

Black and white pictures are perfect to reduce skin imperfections, blemishes, and wrinkles. They can also make you appear more prominent due to the high contrast.

Give it a try. A picture that looks flat in color might appear surprisingly attractive in black and white. Also, black and white images are much more forgiving than colored ones where even a small pimple can stand out like a red dot from a sniper rifle. 

Add humor

If you have a great profile and can add one more picture that conveys humor, you’re golden.  

The goal is not necessarily to make women laugh. Instead, you want to convey that you’re a guy who doesn’t take himself too seriously. And that’s attractive. In fact, most of my clients got almost all their compliments from the pictures I’ll share below. 

Just know, there are a million ways to do this and it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly you should do here. Be creative. Show your own style of humor. 

Here are a few examples to give you a sense of how they could look like:

Before you take new Tinder pictures, do THIS

We covered a lot. 

But before you go out and take new pictures or hire a photographer, you should gather all your existing pictures and do the following: 

• Choose the best ones according to the rules you just learned
• If you can, do a few basic edits: add contrast, crop the pictures, etc.  
• Next, ask for feedback from friends or go on Photofeeler.com to get your pictures rated
• Have a selection of pictures? Upload and test them

From here on, it’s all about testing and repeating. Eventually, you’ll have a profile that gets you more matches than you’d imagine.

Of course, this might take a little more effort than that. You’ll probably have to take new pictures at some point.

More on that below.

How to take Tinder pictures yourself

You have two options. 

The first is to use an often-forgotten feature of your smartphone camera: 

Burst mode. 

The way to use this is by buying a tripod and switching your camera into burst mode. Then place your camera somewhere (try different angles!) and capture a series of pictures in one go. 

While taking pictures, move around and act as naturally as possible. Repeat this process for different images until you have a few bangers.

The second option is to ask a friend or anyone with a good eye for composition and/or fashion. Tell them about your plan and get a few outfits ready. 

Then, go out and try to get as many pictures as possible. If they can give you instructions while taking your pictures, even better. 

Tips on finding the right photographer

First, not every photographer knows how to make you look attractive on Tinder. 

A lot of them are just good at taking ‘good’ pictures. This means they’re technically good at taking photos and ensuring a good composition. 

So make sure you tell them beforehand what you want. That’s where you share the sequence of pictures you want with them. This is crucial! 

Second, ask them if they are also willing to take smartphone pictures for you. 

Remember? You want to make most of your pictures natural, not try hard. 

A photographer might just use their DSLR, and that’s not what you want. Let them know you only need one or two pictures with their DSLR (first and second picture of the sequence). 

Third, combining colors and matching outfits can feel like an impossible jigsaw puzzle. So ask the photographer if they can help you with that. 

If they can’t, they probably don’t have a good eye for fashion. Choose another one. 

Just know finding the perfect photographer might take a few tries. So think before you spend.

Your next steps

Now that you have great pictures, it’s time to…

• Learn how to start a conversation on Tinder
• Check out my Tinder bio breakdown, where I explain and improve common bios you find online
• Discover the latest Tinder hacks
• And find out how to get more dates on Tinder

Your Efficient Dating Advisor, 
Herman The German