Have you ever been caught shouting "Oh.... new
Facebook profile pic!" to a friend taking a cute picture? I think this translates to "that is a great picture of you." Same thing, right? Well, over the years, because this phrase has crept into my vocabulary
unknowlingly, I believe that in my subconscious lies a methodology for how to select the perfect
Facebook profile picture, so here it goes:
- Must not looked planned- This especially holds true for the "hold out the camera and snap" pictures. If this is how you are taking pictures then at least crop it so that you don't show any trace of your outstretched hand, or even the abnormal twisting of the shoulder. This just screams "trying too hard." Ok, yes... I'm sure we've all done taken pictures like this with friends, but the theory behind a good Facebook profile picture is that you naturally take LOTS of good pictures and don't have to reserve specific time for getting all ready to take a profile picture by yourself... like somehow you are crafting a way to cheat people out of what you look like daily. And in all honestly, all of your friends already know what you look like in person, so any attempt to over-improve the situation is noted as a tad pathetic.
- Any attempts to be sexy, must be incidental- I've seen lots of friends try to pull of a sexy profile shot. When in all reality, when you TRY to look sexy... you fail. Looking sexy is a look that is usually observed only by those you are attracted to. It is an emotion that is triggered, not crafted, (as is displayed when you ask me to make a "fierce" face) and all attempts to fake this feeling should be left to the professionals, who might not really be faking it because have you seen Nigel Barker? :) Maybe that's why he takes such good pictures.
- Must be sized appropriately- I despise profile pictures of people where you spend most of the time playing "Where's Waldo." When I open up a persons Facebook profile, I should be able to see who belongs to the name listed on the right. Sure, you might have a fantastic shot of you with the entire landscape of the Wasatch mountains, but save that for your albums, and as my mom would say, brushing back my bangs in the early 90's... let me see your face!
- If you are going artsy, use caution- I've seen the occasional artsy profile pictures that often get either an "oh cool" (head bob) or "woooah" (weirded out face scrunch) from me. There is an art to choosing an artsy picture and if the rule "must not looked planned" applied before, it applies even more so now... Let's take a for instance... a good artsy picture often tells a story somehow and the person or object would portray or evoke an emotion within the scene or captured story-line. A bad picture is where you see randomness without connection and contrived emotion... equaling cheesiness. Beware.
- Random pictures sometimes translates as lack of self-esteem- I've seen several people just post random pictures as their Facebook profile picture, and I always think two things when I see this: 1) This person must not want to show a picture of themselves for some reason... let me find out why. Self-esteem? 2) What are they hiding? Don't find yourself in this group... give the people what they came to your profile page for.
- X-ney on Baby Pictures- (the only exception to this might be your birthday) It seems to me that most people who post baby pictures can't find a good recent picture of themselves and seem to think that a cute baby picture will cover up the attempt and take away the pressure of having an up-to-date picture. Perhaps... but most of the time when I see this, I don't spend very long on the baby picture... but try to find other pictures that show me what they look like now. I'll admit, there are times when I think the picture is cute, but still I want to know what you look like now... save the baby pictures for your albums.
- Action shots... heck yes- I love action shots as profile pictures, but shots that become your profile picture should usually be fairly close up and just of you. Perhaps this is why on every adventure I go on now-a-days, everyone wants tons of pictures, taking it as far as posing in the midst of the activity for that one cool shot in the off chance that one perfect picture might rise to the top of the Facebook profile picture food chain. It's gotta be the secret Facebook profile picture agenda... that or I'm living in a world of over-zealous scrapbookers. (No, I'm not talking about you Dud's... you get Scrapbooker of the Year exempt status.)
Overall... finding the perfect Facebook profile picture is hard. There are so many unwritten rules you learn as you go. Maybe that's why it has become such a compliment to have someone tell you that a picture is FB profile worthy.
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