Dating Photography FAQ

We can rock an online dating photo session just about anywhere in Seattle and the Puget Sound. For dating profile photos I typically I like to choose a location that’s relevant to you, whether it’s your hood or a favorite stomping grounds, or maybe it’s just somewhere with that gritty urban vibe that you love. We'll choose a rendezvous spot and shoot your dating photos in the surrounding area. For longer dating photo sessions we may drive to a second or third location.

I most definitely do dating photography for women! In fact, I LOVE photographing women and two of my dearest friends are women who hired me to shoot dating profile photos and portraits of them (shout out to Sarah & Marisa!). My dating photo website is heavy on photos of men because 70% of my clients are men. 

Anybody who has worked with me knows that I'm pretty direct so I won't mince words here--the Seattle online dating scene just seems to be tougher for men (in part, I'm sure because, demographically, Seattle has more men than women, and for that I think we an thank the tech industry). Plus I have a theory that men don't take as many photos of themselves or each other so when it comes time to choose dating profile photos it's just extra hard. 

In any case, whatever your gender, if you find yourself sifting through a short supply of low quality camera roll pics for your dating profile, it's pretty unlikely you're going to feel great about your dating profile and equally unlikely that your dating profile will effectively attract high-quality matches.

The people I work with know this, especially the  women.  Women will frequently tell me it's not a necessarily a lack of matches that's motivating them to hire a dating photographer, but more specifically a lack of matches with people they'd be excited about dating. With every woman I work with (and, honestly, with all the men too) I focus on planning a dating photoshoot that properly communicates the wonderful, multi-dimensional, real, lovable person that you are so you can jump in the Seattle online dating pool with confidence and catch the eyes of the kinds of people you'd be thrilled to date.

I shoot dating app photos for people from outside the Seattle area often! In fact a good chunk of my dating photography clients are from Oregon, and I've even had people come from as far as Minnesota & Alaska! We typically handle it one of two ways:

1. you come up to Seattle for your dating photoshoot (most clients who do this choose to stay with a friend or book a hotel room for the night before the photoshoot as we typically shoot first thing in the morning), or, 

2. I come to you. This would involve a fee in addition to the price of the dating photoshoot to cover the cost of my travel to and from the location and lodging if necessary.

We'll be in touch in the days leading up to your dating profile photo session and if the weather forecast predicts rain or freezing temperatures, we'll reschedule, no biggie.

This one is about personal preference but I'll give you my honest take: No, you don't need professional hair and make-up for your dating photos. This goes for men and for women both. 

Your dating photos are marketing of sorts; you're marketing yourself. And if you're playing a long game here (you want to actually meet people and go on not just first dates but second and third dates), it's crucial that you represent yourself honestly. So having the level of polish to your appearance that typically results from professional styling, unless you regularly look that polished, could actually work against you. You don't want anybody feeling surprised when they meet you in person.

All that being said, if having a pro groom you would make a big difference in how you *feel* going into your dating photo session (more confident, more relaxed), then that's meaningful. Just be sure to ask for a super subtle, natural look and keep it as close to your everyday appearance as possible. For what it's worth, none of the people in the dating photos on this website had professional hair or make-up done before their shoot.

All of the photos in your dating photo gallery will be edited to look clean and appealing without looking modified.  I will adjust things like lighting, contrast, color, tone, etc., but I won't typically change how you look (let's call this retouching). You'll have the option, once you see your gallery, of requesting retouching on particular images for $25/photo but only about 1 in every 20 or so clients does this and only then on the occasional close-up headshot. 

The truth is that the photos don't need retouching (they're strong right out of the camera), and, most importantly, *you* don't need retouching. You are just fine as you are.  Plus, I assume you are hoping to connect with people on dating apps who will also think you are just fine as you are. Not to mention, it's pretty hard to get a second date if you surprise someone on the first date by looking different in real life than you do in your dating photos <--people *hate* when this happens.

Anyhow, you're hopefully getting a sense of my philosophy here. If you'd like changes to your appearance it's best to share them with me before booking your dating photo session so I understand what you're looking for. If you think you want me to make big changes to your appearance (like altering the size/shape of your body) I may try to gently talk you out of it; I may also not be the right dating profile photographer for you.

Nope! Your new dating photos are included with the photo session. After your session you get a super slick private online gallery where you can download all your new dating profile pics--more than enough to try out different photos on your dating profiles and see which ones get you the most matches with the types of people you most want to match with).