Dating photo guides

Choose your photos, improve your profile, and understand what AI photos can and cannot do.

Start here

Which photo goes first?

Use a short checklist for face visibility, framing and current likeness. Then choose the rest of your set.

Read the checklist

An ordinary everyday phone selfie — Compare the same face in both photos. Review every result against how you look today.

Choose your photos

10 September 2026
Dating photo checklist: choose a varied set
Choose a dating photo set with different poses, expressions and settings. Spot repetition and keep photos that represent your life.
10 September 2026
How to choose your first dating profile photo
Choose your first dating photo with a practical checklist for face visibility, crop and current likeness. Compare candidates without guessing at match rates.
9 September 2026
My face comes out too dark in photos
Why a photo can be correctly exposed and still leave your face in shadow, how to tell which case you have, and which of the two can be corrected.
9 September 2026
Can my first photo have sunglasses on?
What the opening photo on a profile has to do, why eyes are the part that decides it, and where a sunglasses photo can still earn a place.
15 August 2026
The photo I want to use has someone else in it
Cropping, erasing, or leaving it alone. What each one costs, what a bad crop looks like to somebody scrolling, and how to tell which you are looking at.

Matches and profiles

6 August 2026
Why am I not getting matches?
Ranked by how well each answer is actually evidenced, including the structural ones nobody mentions because you cannot sell a fix for them.
6 August 2026
Tinder matches suddenly stopped: the boring, documented answer
Match Group states in its own Q2 2026 filing that Tinder rolled out recommendation algorithm changes through 2026. Your results can change when you changed nothing.
6 August 2026
Shadowbans: three different things wearing one word
Hinge has confirmed on the record that it hides rule-breakers. That is not the same as the thing people mean, and no checker tool can tell you which one you have.
6 August 2026
Tinder Elo score: retired in 2019, still being sold in 2026
Tinder published that it stopped using Elo. Most of the pages telling you how to raise yours are optimising for a system that has not existed for seven years.
26 July 2026
No matches on Tinder: what is actually going wrong
The usual advice blames your photos without saying which one. Here is what to check first, in the order that matters, and what nobody tells you about the numbers.
10 September 2026
No matches on Hinge? Check these before paying
No matches on Hinge? Check Pause, preferences, photos and prompts. Find a specific problem before paying or replacing your whole profile.
26 July 2026
No matches on Bumble: give her something to open with
On Bumble the other person has to send the first message, and a profile with nothing to grab is a profile nobody can start. What to change.
15 August 2026
Matches, but nobody messages me
A profile can be clean and still give a stranger nothing to open with. What a photo needs to hold for that, and which position needs it most.

AI photos and privacy

6 August 2026
Will my date notice my photos were AI?
The question nobody selling AI dating photos will answer in writing. What actually gives it away, what does not, and what has to be true of the photo for the answer to be no.
6 August 2026
Do you have to tell them your photos are AI?
There is no rule that says you must, and there is a version of this that is obviously fine and a version that is obviously not. Where the line actually sits.
9 September 2026
What happens to the photos you upload
Where they go, who can see them, how long they are kept and what they are used for. The same answer whether you pay us or not.
15 August 2026
Why does photo verification keep failing?
Verification compares a live selfie with the photos already on your profile. What each app asks of those photos, and how to find the weak one.