Profile photo: what works, and what quietly ruins it

Three mistakes almost everybody makes

A group shot as the first picture. The reasoning is "show that I have friends", and the result is that somebody has to guess which one you are. Nobody guesses, they scroll on. If you want a group photo, make it the third, not the first.

Sunglasses. They hide exactly the part people look at in order to decide whether they want to talk to you. A photograph in sunglasses is a photograph of an outfit, not of a person.

Shot from a distance. A spectacular view and you a dot inside it. Beautiful, and useless. If somebody has to zoom in to see you, you have already lost them.

What does work, and why

One clear photograph of your face, from the distance you talk to somebody at. Natural light, ideally not the middle of the day when the sun is directly overhead. Next to a window in the morning is the simplest thing there is.

An expression that looks like you. A small genuine smile works better than a wide forced one, and a straight face works better than both if that is how you actually look. The aim is not to look your best, it is to look like the person who will arrive at the meeting.

Then two or three more that show something: a place you were, a thing you do, a dog if there is one. They do not sell you, they give somebody something to write to you about.

How many, and who takes them

Three to five. Fewer than three looks like there is nothing to show, more than five starts to look like a catalogue.

You do not need a photographer. A phone, somebody close to you, and ten minutes by a window beat a studio, because a studio portrait creates exactly the gap it is meant to close: you look like somebody else.

And if appearance is the obstacle in the first place, there is a way around it. A masked date is five minutes of video with both sides hidden, and faces are revealed only if you both choose it. There you are judged on what you say.