How to take the perfect profile picture for Owl Tutors

If you follow this list of do’s and don’ts we are hopeful that we can help tutors to make a great profile photo every time. For the avoidance of doubt, I would like to make it very clear that what you look like will not have any bearing at all on the success of your application. However, if we feel that the photo that you submit to us is not of sufficient quality or does not meet certain formatting standards, we will ask you to re-submit a new photo that does.

The DO’s

Get someone else to take the photo or use a timer and a tripod

It will be much easier for you to have your profile picture taken by someone else. Do read the rest of our tips below before starting this process as you may need to relay some of this information to your photographer. If you are not able to find someone else to take the picture, you can also use a tripod and the timer setting on your camera to achieve the same result.

Make sure that you are in a well lit area

Lighting in photography is very important. The best lighting is natural, but artificial lighting can also be fantastic if used correctly. You will want to position yourself in a well-lit part of the room, but it’s crucial to make sure that the source of your light (either light bulbs or a window) is not actually within the camera shot. If the camera shot has a window or a light bulb within it, it will dazzle the camera, which will compensate by making you look less well lit. My top tip here would be to stand or sit near a window on a bright sunny day, but make sure that the window or any rays of sunlight are not actually visible in the shot.

Stand or sit against a plain background

We want you to be the focus of the photo. This will be achieved best if you have a plain, bright background behind you. A plain, light, matt wall should achieve this perfectly. Please make sure that no paintings, graffiti (or anything else for that matter) makes it into the camera shot.

Stand or sit at least 50cm away from your background

When we are asked to stand near a plain background, our instincts tend to be to stand with our back almost directly against the wall. If you do this, there is a chance that a shadow will appear to one side of you. If you stand a short distance away from the background, you will find that this shadow will not longer be there.

Smile

We are not producing pictures for the purposes of border security, but rather to sell our services as educators! Rapport is very important in the teaching profession as you will be well aware, and you can get a head-start on building rapport by smiling in your profile picture.

Face the camera

Here at Owl Tutors we go to great lengths to find the best teachers in the world to be our tutors. In order to show our clients how important quality is to us, we like to show that we can apply certain standards to our tutors. Please face the camera with your shoulders parallel to the camera rather than at an angle. And finally… look your best. This will mean different things to different people, so I will leave it at that.

The Don’ts

Don’t try to crop or format your photo yourself

One regular issue that we have with submitted photos is that applicants look at the photos that we have on our website and try to replicate the dimensions by cropping themselves out of a larger image. The consequence of this is that applicants often crop too much out, so we cannot then perform any cropping ourselves. Please send us the full image that you have taken, and do not worry if the size of the photo is much larger than the profile pictures that we have. We will crop the photo ourselves to the dimensions that we want.

Don’t crop a photo of you out of a photo that was not made for this purpose

I would hope that this is pretty self-explanatory but… just to reiterate: please DO NOT crop yourself out of a holiday photo or a family portrait etc. It is almost certain that by doing so the picture will not be suitable to be accepted as your profile picture.

Don’t take a selfie

Selfies tend to look like selfies. There are probably some expert selfie takers out there that could, using a selfie stick, create an image that would be accepted as a profile picture for Owl Tutors. But the chances are that, if we receive a selfie, we will ask you to take the picture again. Taking a selfie will normally mean that you need to hold one arm out to take the picture, which will in turn raise one of your shoulders. It will also be very difficult to get the camera pointed directly at you rather than looking up at you or down on you.

Don’t use a flash

If the flash is used by your camera, you have either set it to do so or the area you have positioned yourself in has insufficient light. The flash could reflect off your retinas, will probably show as glare in your glasses if you wear them, and will make you look noticeably more shiny than you normally look. If you have set the flash to come on, switch off the flash. If the flash is coming on automatically, you need to position yourself closer to more natural or artificial light so that it does not. Good luck!

Don’t take a black and white photo

Using a black-and-white profile picture deviates from our standard presentation, leading to confusion among our clients about our branding consistency.