Facebook's own tips cover four things. Make your primary photo just you, with your face clearly shown. Use clear photos taken in well-lit places. Include shots of you doing things you love, and use photos someone else took rather than only selfies.

Your primary photo: just you, face clear

The first photo decides whether she looks at the rest, so Facebook's advice starts there. Just you in the frame, your face easy to see.

That rules out a lot of common choices. No group shot, because she should not have to guess which one you are. No sunglasses or hat brim hiding your eyes. No photo taken from so far away that you are a small figure in front of a view.

Pick a photo where you look relaxed and pleasant, the way you look when a friend has just said something funny. A slight smile usually beats a serious stare, which tends to read as nervous rather than mysterious.

Clear and well lit beats sharp and staged

Facebook asks for clear photos taken in well-lit places. That is about basics, not about hiring a photographer.

Daylight does most of the work. Stand facing a window or step outside in the late afternoon, and a phone camera will give you a clear, flattering photo. Dark bars and bathroom lights do the opposite.

Do not swing too far the other way, though. Photos that look professionally staged can backfire. People who build dating profiles for a living keep seeing the same thing. The photos that do best tend to look like a friend took them on a phone. They look like real moments, not a shoot.

Check each photo on your phone at the size she will see it. If your face is hard to make out when the picture is small, it is not clear enough, however good it looks on a big screen.

Show what you actually do

Facebook suggests photos of you doing things you love. This is where she learns about your life without you having to tell her.

A photo cooking for friends says you are social and can feed a table. A photo on a trail says you like being outside. A photo on stage with a guitar says more about you than any list of hobbies.

Keep it soft rather than loud. A photo that shows your life indirectly lands better than one built to impress. A relaxed shot on a boat with friends reads as a good life. A posed shot at the wheel of a rented sports car reads as a man who needs her to know.

Get someone else behind the phone

Facebook's tips point you toward photos other people took rather than only selfies. There is a practical reason.

A selfie comes with an arm's length of distortion and one angle. A set of selfies also tells a quiet story: this man spends his time alone, photographing himself. A photo someone else took shows your whole frame, your posture, and a setting, and it hints that there are people in your life who want to spend time with you.

Ask a friend with a good eye to spend an hour with you in two or three places. Change your shirt between places. You will come home with more usable photos than a year of selfies produced.

Stay the man in the photos

Facebook also says it may remove your Dating profile, or ask you to verify it, if it thinks you might be misrepresenting yourself. Take that seriously.

Heavy filters, years-old photos, or pictures that flatter you past recognition create a problem on the first date. She walks in expecting one man and meets another, and the rest of the evening is spent recovering from that gap.

Facebook Dating adds its own twist. Some of the women you see share friends with you, so a photo that stretches the truth can be checked against someone who knows what you actually look like.

Photos and prompt answers work together

Your photos get her attention. Your prompt answers give her something to say.

That order matters. If the photos are weak, she will not read a word, however clever your prompts are. Once the photos are strong, a specific, slightly playful prompt answer turns interest into a message she actually sends.

So put your effort into the photos first. When you start getting likes and conversations you enjoy, come back to your prompt answers and sharpen the weakest one.