Hinge photo tips: what to post and in what order

What your six photos need to do

Think of the set as a quick introduction. Between them, your photos should answer three questions:

• What do you look like? Clearly, in good light, without sunglasses or a filter.
• What do you do? A hobby, a place you go, something you're mid-way through doing.
• Who are you around people? One photo with friends, where you're easy to spot.

If a photo doesn't answer any of these better than the others, it's taking up a slot.

A running order that works

There's no single correct order, but this one rarely goes wrong:

• 1. A clear solo photo of your face, smiling or relaxed, in natural light. This is your first impression, so it should be your best.
• 2. A full-length or half-length photo, so people get a fair sense of you.
• 3. You doing something. Cooking, climbing, at a pottery wheel, on a canal walk.
• 4. A group or friends photo, with you obvious within a second.
• 5. Something with a story. A place, an event, a dog, a terrible fancy dress costume.
• 6. Another clear photo of you that's different from the first: a different setting, outfit or mood.

The first photo does the most work. A group shot, a far-away landscape or a photo in sunglasses up front makes people work to find you, and plenty won't bother.

Photos that quietly cost you

Group photo first

Nobody should have to play spot-the-difference. Group shots are good, just not first, and not more than one or two.

Sunglasses in most of them

Eyes do a lot of work in a photo. One sunny shot is fine. Three means nobody knows what you look like.

Mirror and car selfies

A bathroom mirror selfie says you had nobody to take the photo. A car selfie has a seatbelt across it and a headrest behind you. Swap both for photos someone else took.

Filters and heavy editing

Smoothing filters and face edits backfire on the first date, when you look different from your photos. Brightness, cropping and straightening are fine. Changing your face or body isn't.

Old photos

If a photo is more than a couple of years old, or you look noticeably different now, leave it out. The aim is that someone recognises you when you walk in.

The cropped-out ex

A stray arm round your shoulder raises a question you don't want asked. Use a different photo.

Six of the same

Same angle, same lighting, same expression. Variety is what makes a set feel like a real person.

Getting better photos without a photographer

• Ask a friend, and ask them to take a lot. Twenty shots gets you one good one. Three gets you three average ones.
• Shoot in daylight, near a window or outside on an overcast day. Soft light flatters everyone.
• Have the camera at eye level or just above. Low angles are rarely kind.
• Do something while they shoot. Walking, laughing at something, mid-conversation. Posed and stiff is the default; moving is better.
• Use the back camera, not the selfie camera. It's sharper.
• Plan one or two photos around things you actually enjoy. A Saturday market, a climbing wall, the park with your dog.

If you're stuck for ideas, a simple shot list helps: one portrait near a window, one full-length on a walk, one doing your hobby, one with friends, one somewhere with a story.

Make your photos and prompts work together

Hinge lets people comment on a specific photo, so each one is a potential first message. A photo that shows something specific (a half-finished mug at a pottery wheel, a summit sign, a very muddy parkrun) is far easier to comment on than a nice-but-generic selfie.

Then echo it. If one photo is from a pottery class, a prompt like "I bet you can't" with a pottery challenge ties the two together. If you've got a dog, one photo with it beats a prompt that just says you love dogs. There's more on this in our guide to Hinge prompts.

Video and captions

Hinge lets you add short videos and captions alongside your photos. A few seconds of you laughing or talking can show more personality than a still, as long as it's clear and well lit. Keep any caption short and specific, or skip it. A caption that says "me" is wasted space.

A quick photo check

• Is your first photo a clear, solo shot of your face?
• Can someone tell what you look like from at least three of the six?
• Is there at least one photo of you doing something?
• Is there a group photo, but no more than two?
• Are all of them recent and unfiltered?
• Is anything a mirror selfie, car selfie or crop?

If you'd rather not guess, Datefix's free score rates your current profile and tells you which photo to lead with and which to drop. You can also check the most common dating profile mistakes, or read Bumble bio ideas if you're on more than one app.

Questions people ask