How to Find a Dating Photographer Near You

Start with people you already know, then widen to local photographers and classified listings, and judge each one by the portfolio and by how many frames get shot in a session. A good dating photographer takes a lot of pictures and keeps few. Look at the work, ask how the session runs, and one conversation will usually tell you whether the fit is right.

The cheapest good option is a friend who already takes photos. a dating coach's advice to men with weak photos is to find a friend who does photography, or hire a professional. A friend knows you, will shoot for a coffee, and can reshoot if the first afternoon goes badly.

Ask around before you search. Someone in your group, your gym or your office owns a decent camera and wants practice.

If no friend works out, there are a few places to look.

• Local photographers' own sites and social pages. Search for portrait or lifestyle work in your area and look at what they actually shoot.
• Classified listings. a dating coach has said you can find someone on a classifieds site for not much, and that it is not hard to get at least something decent from a person who knows what they are doing.
• Referrals. Ask a friend who has had good photos taken. Where a friend's photos look natural, ask who took them.

You are not hunting for the prettiest studio. Check the work for these:

1. Natural light. Faces lit by a window or open shade, not by a harsh flash.
2. Real places. Streets, cafes, parks, not one grey backdrop.
3. Varied people. Several men of different looks, who all look like themselves.
4. Relaxed faces. If every subject has the same held smile, you will get the same held smile.

a dating coach's fix for a man whose photos were badly lit was plain: decent lighting, where the light is not coming straight down on him and the camera is not looking up at his chin. Look for both in the portfolio.

Watch for the stock paid-shoot look as well. Every client stands in the same warm evening light, in front of the same two or three backdrops, in one jacket. A photographer who works across two or three locations on a normal day, with a change of clothes, gets you closer to variety.

Professionals shoot many frames and keep few. a dating coach puts it plainly: you take maybe a hundred photos and choose two, and that is normal. Pick a photographer who works that way.

Ask three questions before you book:

• How many photos do you take in a session? You want to hear a big number, because the two keepers come out of the hundred.
• Can we shoot in two or three places, with a change of clothes? Different outfits in different spots are what make a set read as several days and not one afternoon.
• What exactly does the quote cover? A quote usually covers a session fee, retouching and the right to use the photos, and it varies with where you live and what is in the package. Get all three in writing.

A photographer makes the most sense for a man who has no usable photos at all. If your phone photos are already decent, a friend and a bright afternoon may cover the difference at no cost.

Almost everyone is stiff in front of a stranger's camera at first, so book a session long enough to get past that.

Wear what you would wear to meet her. How a shirt sits on your shoulders shows in a photo far more than what it cost.

Know the limit of a shoot too. It hands you a folder of pictures. Picking which photo goes first on each app, ordering the rest and writing the words underneath are still yours to do.

A local shoot is one route among several. A friend with a phone is another, and a third needs no shoot at all: a set made from your own selfies. Photos that truly look like you are fine to use, whichever route produced them.