The importance of a picture

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Well i decided to join one of those looks based dating sites as a way to try and get a bit of self esteem back about my looks. I picked a picture i posted in wp not long ago of me shirtless in a natural state. After 24 hours It seems that everyone either finds it beutiful or not at all to their tastes, so I decided to run a small experiment.
I made 2 more profiles, and in them I added one of just a face shot in a semi dark room, unedited, with a happy smilly face. The other i went all out for the sexy look, nothing was left to expense. From lighting, to makin sure i had blood rushing through muscles to bulge them a bit more, hair done, a bit of computer editing, the whole 9 yards.

To my surprise it seems the picture of my face alone is getting more "not bad" ratings yet as many "hot" ratings compared to the other two which mostly get the really hot ratings, but it also seems as if those two other pictures attact just as much negative response to them as positive.

As of right now the original picture is balancing on the edge of "making it in/not making it in" while the other two are in a bit larger comfort zone. Surprisingly the faceshot has the highest rating while having the least "hot" ratings than the others.

Which leads to the point of this small experiment, People like pitures of you that give them a hint of your looks but doesnt show them completely away. Yes some brazilian already tried hitting on the first profile but it seems the more human picture is getting the most human response. Ill update this thread with final results later. You can discuss how the usage of pictures has affected your online dating profiles in here.

i've never tried online dating but i'd guess if it was a woman posting such photos, the full body one would get most response? chsk

Maybe, or could also prove that the act of hidding some might trigger an inner curiosity on raters that would then allow them to visualize your body to what they want.

Like i said earlier somewhere else, when my pics were on my Okc profile I got zero replies, none, nil.

After I've removed them, I got much more responses, even initiative messages. I didn't change anything else in the profile nor in my approach.

I've got replies later from the same persons who ignored me the first time after a second attempt.

There is a limit to this of course - I can barely make you out in that race car :)

maybe hot bodies get more reponses and other bodies get more responses when left to the imagination.
this is rocket science at its very best, i'll shut up

thats not me though, thats ayrton senna, who has been dead since 1994.

OSB. you're getting there. Now there has to be a certain ammount that one can show to attract people but not so much that it actually becomes a repellant.

maybe a bit of saucy shoulder

Especially with someone with your thought provoquing writting style im sure they actually not just payed more attention to your profile but actually wanted to converse with you to see whether its just a well written profile or someone genuinely like that. With a picture they may just look at it and judge you based on that alone.

Yeah, that's exactly my conclusion.

Either ways, it usually leads to nothing at the end.

thats a completely different thread. I just mean to see if we can get a small knowledge bank for those who are making profiles to see what is better in a picture than just plain looks. Seeing as the same face, with same facial expression and just different lighting had completely different results.

Yeah, I agree. I always do my utmost to maintain a high standard of appearance.

http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/the-4 ... -pictures/
http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/dont- ... -accident/

the first article talks about how NOT showing your face has a positive effect for profile pictures. in short, MXH is correct.


also, you can have people rate which one of your photos is the best pick for you, evaluated according to the demographics of the voters.

http://www.okcupid.com/mybestface

So, you're saying that if one was to use a dating site, we shouldn't show our faces? So, what then? A photo of my gut? I'm sure that'd be a turn on!

-Must show abs if you have them, more skin, no smiling , looking away...

No wonder why my photos were failing me, I am a smiley on pic and look at the camera, no abs and not much skin.

Being yourself is a myth there then.

I used to get lots of messages, now I barely do. I wonder why...?