To determine which factors made a photo more attractive, the staff tabulated the number of interested responses to thousands of pictures, then broke down their characteristics.
The findings were intriguing, to say the least.
Women responded more often to pictures in which the man is looking off camera, not into it. Men were more likely to respond to pictures in which the woman is at home (and looking a little come-hither), rather than out with friends or on a trip. But for both sexes, pictures in which the subjects are smiling uniformly trounced the stone-faced ones.
For pictures of men, especially, said Sam Yagan, a founder of the site, the smile is critical. Good to know.
But what was most striking to Mr. Yagan about the OkCupid pictures was how much thought and effort went into even the most casual snapshots. People are really putting their best foot forward, for complete strangers, he said. Its pretty remarkable.
Remarkable indeed.
Human vanity has been jolted by any number of power surges over the years: the late-Neolithic-era development of the mirror, the late-19th-century popularization of makeup, the late reign of Tom Ford at Gucci. With the debut last week of Apples newest iPhone, the latest show of vanity has kicked into high gear.
With a second camera lens that faces the viewer (instead of the view), the iPhone has simplified something people have been struggling with some covertly, some flagrantly ever since they signed up for AOL more than a decade ago: taking a good picture of themselves.
Finally, the iGeneration has a good head shot.
The fine art of self-presentation used to be something mastered only by models and movie stars. Mere mortals did their best for special occasions, like family outings, with what was, one hoped, a single, pleasant expression. Then having a camera phone aimed your way became as much a part of lifes pleasure and pain as ordering a coffee at Starbucks.
People are so much more attuned to adjusting how they look in front of a camera, said Keith Gould, the creator of Daily Mugshot, a free Web site that allows users to automatically upload a picture of themselves every day. (The results can be embedded, like any picture, on your own Web page, and they can be played in rapid sequence, like an animation.) Now they make precise decisions about every part of their face and angle of their head.
As a result, the self-snap is fast becoming as vital a facet of how we present ourselves as our clothes, figures or voices. Photographing oneself easily and well is a talent that, like being able to download music via mind control or reduce whole paragraphs to acronyms at warp speed, is now a given for young people. And it is a skill that, if you are single or younger than 50, you cannot afford to neglect especially if you are both.
The practice is so common that it is changing photography itself.
