Step-By-Step Guide On How To Shoot Great Tinder Photos

You’re aware that you need better photos, but you’re feeling puzzled where to being.

You can’t recall a single photo of yourself that didn’t make you physically cringe to unimaginable levels. You can’t shake off the feeling that you’re inherently unphotogenic, which makes the idea of taking better photos seem overwhelming. And now you’re being asked to do exactly that for Tinder photos.

You’re internally screaming, “How the heck am I supposed to do take great photos?” when you can’t seem to get a good selfie, let alone a good shot of yourself. This whole thing just seems impossible.

But what if, in an alternate universe, you had too many amazing Tinder photos, making it difficult to choose just one? Well, believe it or not, that’s actually achievable with the process I use to shoot Tinder photos.

I’ll walk you through the step-by-step approach to executing a successful Tinder photoshoot. I’ll cover what factors to consider at each step, provide practical rules of thumb to get you started, and offer advice on how to further experiment and improve your photos.

0. Maximize the photo idea and looks beforehand

Before going out for a photoshoot, it’s crucial to evaluate whether your idea has the potential to produce an engaging photo. Equally essential is putting in the effort towards your looks and outfit. Neglecting these factors, you may put in the same level of effort to the photoshoot but end up with lackluster results.

1. Pick A Location And A Suitable Spot There

The first step is to choose the location for your photo based on your idea. The spot you select has a major impact on how your photo turns out, as it influences your posing options, the elements visible in the frame, and the lighting conditions. Keep in mind that these aspects are interconnected, so it’s important to consider them together when deciding on a spot.

How Do You Want To Pose

Your idea guides the type of pose you should aim for. Depending on the activity, you might be sitting in a cafe, standing or sitting while playing a guitar, or standing and moving for sports like soccer, golf, or baseball.

Make a mental note of the pose that best complements your idea and seems visually appealing. For more detailed tips on posing, check here for more tips on posing and the master cue I recommend.

Look For A Location With An Appealing Background

When choosing a background for your photo, there are three things to consider.

First, make sure the background aligns with the idea you’re capturing. For instance, if you’re showcasing your passion for football (soccer), using the field as your background creates a cohesive story for the photo.

Second, aim for an appealing background that has some detail for visual interest. Avoid plain, single-color backgrounds whenever possible. Aim to include details that add depth and make the photo more captivating when examined closely.

Last, the background shouldn’t steal the spotlight from you, the guy. For that reason, avoid backgrounds that are cluttered, messy or convey negative impressions. Thus, no bathrooms, no laundry piles, no dirty mirrors!

Finding the right balance of “enough” and “not too much” of background detail comes with practice and feedback. Over time, you’ll develop an eye for it, but for a rule of thumb, less detail in the background, the better (as long as it’s not totally plain one color). You can influence this heavily by how much you fill the frame in your photos, which I’ll talk in more detail below.

Lighting At The Spot

Let’s talk about lighting for your Tinder photos, but we’ll keep it real simple. There are mainly two important things to keep in mind.

First, make sure your face is well-lit, especially your eyes. Second, aim for soft lighting that creates flattering shadows, avoids harsh contrasts, and doesn’t cause you to squint your eyes. In essence, soft light means light that doesn’t produce sharp shadows what direct sunlight does.

To achieve good lighting without getting too technical, you have a few options. Cloudy weather and being in the shade of a building both provide the wanted soft light. Another option is the golden hour, which is the time just after sunrise or before sunset when the sunlight is softer and creates a warm glow.

As long as you shoot your photos in these conditions, you’ll have great lighting without much hassle.

2. Camera Settings

The settings you use for taking photos depend on the device you’re using. However, the main goal is to achieve a nice, blurry background that helps to highlight you, the guy, as the main focus.

SmartPhone

Smartphones make it easy to capture decent photos with their built-in features and software. Just point your camera towards your model and click shoot.

The portrait mode with blur effect aims to mimic the blurry background aesthetic DSLR or mirrorless cameras get with wide apertures.

DSLR / mirrorless camera

Using a DSLR / mirrorless camera gives you more control over the settings (and, in my opinion, better end results), but it’s important to focus on the ones that matter for capturing attractive shots.

These settings will get ensure that you’ll look nice and crisp, and the background will be pleasant and blurry, which helps draw the attention to you.

3. Taking The Photos

It’s time to put all that preparation into action and start capturing some awesome pictures!

When taking Tinder photos, your main focus should be on making yourself the center of attention in the photo.

Stick to these principles, and you’ll be capturing some seriously impressive photos in no time.

4. Take Tons Of Photos, Fuck Around And Find Out

The main method you usually get great photos with is to take hundreds of photos each photoshoot. But the point is not to take the same photo a hundred times. You want to get as close to your inspiration photo as possible and then try experimenting and fucking around with the idea.

There’s two things what the fucking around will do. One, you might accidentally stumble upon a really great photo by simply letting loose and trying new things. Two, you’ll learn more about taking better photos when you see how different changes affect the photos.

Great Tinder photos come from shooting TONS of photos instead of single clicks, so go wild with it.

Key Takeaways

Will you 100% succeed every time? No and that’s the reality of it. Sometimes your idea may not turn out as great as you envisioned, or the spot you chose wasn’t as ideal as you thought. But by following these tips, you will maximize your chances that your photoshoots will succeed.

Here we’ve mainly focused on what happens behind the camera, but next it’s time to focus on stepping in front of the lens. After all, you won’t get great photos if you’re always the one behind the lens. To ensure you don’t end up looking like a startled deer, be sure to check out tips on posing.