Sorting the photos

Okay, you've now got a lot of photos. Now, how do you pick which ones to use?

First, let's do an initial sort.

If you have any "formal" studio photos, choose a few of the best. Because you shouldn't use many of them. One, at the most.

The casual photos? Choose the ones where you think you look O.K., which display interesting things about your personality, and which compliment what you say about yourself in "About me".

... and if you can't get your photos to agree with your eHarmony profile, you either don't take enough pictures of yourself, or you've got a profile that doesn't reflect who you really are. If that's the case... you need to fix the problem.

Hopefully, you still have a pretty large photo collection. Now, you're going to need some advice in picking which of the photos make you look best.

Where do you get this advice? In descending order of desirability...

• A female friend who's a 9 or 10 on looks. Women who preen themselves that well can be harsh critics. And they give much better advice than men do.
• A stylish female friend. Someone who would be a 9 or 10 if she wasn't overweight, or had some other physical problem keeping them from being a 9 or 10. Their artistic senses can be almost as good.
• A male friend who is great at attracting the kinds of people that you want. They don't live 24/7 in the world of style like women can... but they know enough to be helpful.
• Female friends of the type who you'd consider dating. If they weren't family/friends/whatever. Their criticism may not be as sharp or insightful, but you'll at least get some idea of which pictures they think are best.
• Picture rating websites. The oldest, best known, most used (and still free to use!) would be Hot or Not. Submit your picture, and wait for at least 100 people to rate it. It's a useful tool, but it does have its drawbacks. A good proportion of the people rating your picture will be homosexual or transsexual men, who are not your target audience. If you're an older man, your ratings will probably be artificially depressed, because the site is flooded by younger folks. And "beefcake" pictures (such as ones without shirts) will do well on the website, but will kill your results on eHarmony. (Don't believe me? Ask any woman.) But it will give you some idea as to how attractive your pictures are, if you really don't have any good friends to ask. I wouldn't use any picture that rated below a 6, and use pictures that rate below 7 only with extreme caution. Even 7s are a little off. Above 8 is a solid rating to shoot for.

And there you go. You've got the pictures which make you look best, and which compliment your profile.

Tomorrow - something completely different.