Sunglasses in a dating photo: keep it, but not first

Every guide answers this with a blanket no. Upload the photo and get the other answer: which position it can still hold, and whether the eyes can be put back.

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Sunglasses cost you one rating, not all six

Six ratings come back on every photo, and sunglasses land on one of them. Eyes and posture is the rating that reads what your face is doing. Its lowest level, Weak, means the eyes are not visible at all. That is the whole definition. A pair of sunglasses is the plainest way there is to meet it.

The rating people expect them to hit is a different one. Can they see your face is measured from your file rather than judged. It reads how large your face is against the frame. It also reads whether the face sits at the edge, and how dark it is. A face darker than 70 out of 255 comes back Fair on that alone. Sunglasses move none of those numbers, so that rating stays where it was.

This is why a blanket no is the wrong shape of answer. One rating is Weak and five are not, and the photo still has to go somewhere.

Eyes and posture at Weak means the eyes are not visible at all.
Can they see your face is measured from the file you upload.
A face darker than 70 out of 255 comes back Fair on brightness alone.
A rating the frame cannot settle comes back Not clear enough, not a guess.

Where the photo can still go

The check does not answer keep it or bin it. It answers where it goes, and there are five answers. Use this first, use this second, somewhere in the middle, keep this for later, and do not use this one.

First is the one position a sunglasses photo cannot hold. That job is instant recognition: one person, face and eyes plain, sharp, nothing hiding them. The middle and later positions ask for something else entirely. A photo of you in the middle of doing something belongs there. Sunglasses on a boat in July are part of the thing you were doing.

Do not use this one is a real answer and some photos get it. It is not the automatic answer for this one. When it does come back, at least one line comes with it saying why.

First asks for one person, face and eyes plain, nothing hiding them.
Middle is for a photo where the thing you are doing carries it.
Later takes a dressed-up look, another season, a quieter setting.
Do not use this one never arrives without a reason printed beside it.

What actually happens

You upload the photos you are already using, or the ones you are deciding between. Every photo is judged on its own, never against your others. Each photo comes back with where it goes on your profile, six ratings, and what to improve.

Where it goes runs from use this first to do not use this one. The three answers in between are use this second, somewhere in the middle, and keep this for later. A photo where your face is small can still belong in the middle. It is placed there rather than marked down for it.

Each rating is Strong, Solid, Fair or Weak. Two of the six ratings are measured from your file. AI looking at the photo judges the other four. When a photo does not show enough to judge something, the rating says so. It reads Not clear enough, instead of a confident word nobody can trust.

Can they see your face — measured from your file.
Light and focus — measured from your file.
What is around you — judged by AI looking at the photo.
Eyes and posture — judged by AI looking at the photo.
How natural it looks — judged by AI looking at the photo.
Something to ask about — judged by AI looking at the photo.

It names the fault, not a number

A score out of ten tells you nothing you can act on. So there is no score here, no number and no percentage. What to improve is at most three short lines, written about your photo rather than picked from a fixed set.

Often there is nothing worth changing, and the list comes back empty. That is a good result, not a failure. A line appears only when the fault costs the photo something real.

Some faults can be corrected in the photo you already have. A correction is offered when a rating is Fair or Weak and the fault can honestly be corrected. It can also decline, and say that a new photo would serve you better. The check is free. Correcting a photo costs one credit.

What a correction can put back, and what it cannot

Eyes behind sunglasses and eyes in the shadow of a brim are one problem, not two. What is missing sits in one small area of the frame. A correction can put it back only from other photos of you that we already hold. This file does not contain your eyes, and drawing them from nothing puts a stranger on your profile.

So the offer depends on what is on file. With no other photos of you, that correction is not offered at all. A correction may lift a brim clear of your eyes, or move hair off your face, or lower a hand. It never changes your clothes, the place, the time of day or the moment.

Other faults have no correction at all, and the check says so rather than selling one. Detail that was never captured cannot be restored, which means focus and resolution. A file under 640 pixels on the long edge drops Light and focus to Weak. So does a face sharpness under 55, whatever the rest of the frame is doing. Those findings carry no fix, so no button appears over them. And a paid correction that looks properly and finds nothing worth having refuses, and returns the credit.

Uncovering eyes needs other photos of you on file. Without them it is not offered.
A correction moves what is hiding you. It does not change you.
Focus and resolution were never captured, so no correction is offered for them.
A file under 640 pixels on the long edge drops Light and focus to Weak.
The check is free. Correcting a photo costs one credit.

What it will not do

It reads what is visible in a photograph. It does not know you, and it is not judging you.
Every photo is judged on its own. We never compare your photos to each other.
It cannot tell you whether a specific person will like you, and nothing can.
It has no access to your dating app account, your match count or your likes.
The check is free and it does not ask for a card.

Once you know which photo is the problem

Knowing a photo has to go is useful on its own. It is more useful when the replacement is one you can actually get, which is the part generating is for: your own face, in the photo your profile is short of.

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Questions

Can my first photo have sunglasses on?

In practice, no. The first position asks for instant recognition, which means one person, face and eyes plain, nothing hiding them. A photo with sunglasses on cannot do that job, so the check will not put it first. What it does instead is say which of the other four positions the photo can hold. Often that is the middle or later, and both are real places on a profile.

Is it okay to keep the sunglasses photo at all?

Usually yes, in a later position. Nothing about sunglasses makes a photograph unusable, and the check does not treat them as a fault to be removed. It reads what the frame shows, rates the eyes as not visible, and says where the photo goes. A profile needs more than one photo, and the later ones are where what you actually do belongs.

Can you take the sunglasses off and show my eyes?

Sometimes, and only from your own photos. The eyes are not in this file. They have to come from another picture of you that we already hold. With no other photos of you on file, that correction is not offered and nothing is charged. Where it is offered it costs one credit and works from your face alone. It can also decline, and return the credit.

What about a cap or a hat shading my eyes?

The same case, with one difference. A brim can put your whole face in shadow. Brightness is measured from your file rather than judged. A face darker than 70 out of 255 comes back Fair. So a cap photo often loses two ratings where sunglasses lose one. Lifting a brim clear of the eyes can be planned as a correction, on the same terms as sunglasses.