by Chas Hathaway

Created on: June 24, 2008   Last Updated: July 02, 2008

If you have a Facebook or Myspace account, you have probably played around with your
profile picture. In social networking, your photo is the most prominent part of your
profile, and represents a good part of who you are. Why not go to a little more effort
to make your profile picture a little better? Here are 5 ideas for enhancing your
personal profile picture:

1. Zoom in. One of the most common photography mistakes is having a distant
subject with a massive background. This may be a good way to prove that you've been to
the Grand Canyon, but in a profile, you want people to see your face.
If you have a high quality picture with you in the distance, simply crop most of the
background.

2. Make sure your face is in perfect focus. When it comes to photography, your features
tell people who you are. Don't let those features be dampened by bad focus. If you have
an image editing program on your computer, try blurring or darkening the background.
This gives your picture depth and eliminates distracting images and colors.

2. Watch the lighting. Don't use a photo with flash-burn. If you find this hard to
avoid, back the camera up and use optical zoom with the flash.

Avoid using photos where your shadow can be seen behind you. Also, avoid the mistake of merging. That is where something in the background seems to merge with the foreground. If you're taking a
picture of yourself in front of a hanging pot, for example, make sure it is not directly
behind your head, because when you look at the picture in 2 dimensions, you may be
surprised to see yourself wearing a flowerpot for a hat.

4. Consider the composition. One of the most basic rules of composition is the rule of
thirds. You want the focal point of a picture to be 1/3 of the way down from the top of
the picture. In a profile picture, your eyes are the focal point. Using the rule of
thirds creates balance that looks pleasing to your viewers.

5. Use photo retouching. This does not mean giving yourself digital plastic surgery.
The point of photo retouching is to bring out the real you and the best you. Photos
rarely do justice to their subject, and the point of photo retouching is to get the photo
to better match the real you. If your eye-color doesn't show well in a picture, fix it.

If you want to be creative and tamper with of the colors, do it in such a way that it is
obviously tampered with - turn some or all of the colors to an old fashioned black and
white or sepia look. Invert some colors, or superimpose yourself against an abstract
background.

Have fun with your photo, and don't be shy to try a number of techniques to get your
picture to express your true personality.

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