Café window
Café Photos for Dating Profiles
Approachable, easy to imagine a first date.
The café photo makes you easy to imagine meeting. Coffee is the most common first date there is, so a photo of you at a café table is close to a photo of the date itself. The viewer doesn't have to do any work to picture it.
It also solves the lighting problem for free. A window seat gives you a large, soft, directional light source, which is the same thing a photographer spends twenty minutes building with a softbox. Here it costs the price of a flat white.
What to wear
- A crew neck or a plain knit. The frame is tight, so a busy pattern fights your face
- One layer with texture, like wool, denim or corduroy, so the photo doesn't read flat
- Nothing white, which will blow out against a bright window
When to shoot it, and the light
Mid-morning or mid-afternoon, sitting so the window is at 45 degrees to your face rather than behind you. Directly backlit turns you into a silhouette. Facing the window head-on flattens your features.
The mistake that ruins this shot
Holding the cup up near your chin. It covers the jaw, and hands near the face are the fastest way to make a candid photo look staged.
Where it goes in your profile
Good second or third photo. It reads warm rather than striking, so it works better following a clear headshot than opening the set.