Editorial-style Casual Portraits

Editorial style portraits show your story. It’s less about how you look, and more about who you are, and personal stories, like what you have done, how you feel, and what you want to do. You could think of this as a photographic analog of brief biography. As such, there is no hard rules, unlike most headshots styles; we can use whatever that works for your personal story. In other words, regular headshots are created to meet their industry standard practice. Personal editorial pictures are created to depict your standard practice.

Examples:

• Social media
• Personal branding
• Models for personal projects (**)
• Senior portraits
• Engagement photo
• Dating profile photo

(**) Models seeking professional work should follow the industry practice.

These types of photography are interactive, active and free-styled. It can be as natural and spontaneous, or can be creative, off-beat, artsy and funky. Again, there is no hard rules. If you are a creative type, or the type of person who cares about personal branding, this is probably the type of photography you could use to enhance your image.

Dating & Personal Photography

Dating profile photography is a casual editorial photography about you and your life interests. Use photography to describe who you are; how you look should be only a small part of the picture.

Another aspect of dating photography is that, you want to capture the happy and exciting expression in an unconstrained, relaxed environment showing you are a real human being and having fun life. This is true to some extent for all people photography, but it is particularly important for dating photography. Many clients seeking this option benefit from the photographer’s insight and coaching through brief consultation as well as the shooting session. If you tend to worry a lot about details, or concern about your faults (e.g., “I never look good in photos.”), these things not only slow down your actions, but you’ll look nervous, unconfident or awkward in the pictures. Former clients overcome these points with the help of photographers and obtained good pictures as seen in customer testimonials.

In short, a good dating photo is something that may look like natural, casual snapshots your close friend might take on vacation days, but actually much better quality and expression.

How good dating photo makes difference

Dating photography should be natural looking image of you in an environment you personally associate with (such as your favorite neighborhood, used bookstore, museum, etc.), or in an activity you enjoy. One very common mistake is to use studio portrait (like family portrait type images) or sexy glamour shot type images—-by which, wrong people will be attracted and flood your inbox. If the picture shows you with a visual message, which fits with the story you write in the profile, it is already a good filter against the noise and you’re more likely to make a meaningful connection.

People do analyze the background of your pictures, activities you are engaged in, and make comments about them. For example, check out “Key #8” of 12 Keys to Better Online Dating Communication by Joe Tracy, publisher of Online Dating Magazine.

You can get amazing clues to their interests by carefully rereading every aspect of that person’s profile and by closely analyzing the background of any pictures they have posted.
For example, if someone says in their profile “I love to travel” then that is your cue to ask questions like “what’s the most fascinating place you’ve ever traveled to?”
By showing an interest in the other person’s interests you are improving the communication that the two of you share.

The art and science of dating photography

Believe or not, there are lots of research done in this area, mostly by major dating services companies. But the most openly available research comes from a dating site okcupid. Of their online articles, these two are most relevant:

• Don’t be ugly by accident

• The 4 big myths of profile pictures

These articles are very rich of data, and technical at places, but if you are interested in the rationale behind good dating photography, they are highly recommended. But if you work with beaupix, your pictures will be taken with the insight from their data analyses!

They also have an article about how to write effective messages.