Profile photos: choosing your main picture and gallery

Your main profile photo should work as a small thumbnail. A gallery provides more space and context. When choosing photos, consider both the quality of each image and whether the images complement one another and reflect the profile as it is today.

Judge your main photo at a small size

An image that looks good full screen may be unclear on a profile card. Make it smaller on your phone and check whether the main subject is still easy to recognise. A busy background, small text or several equally prominent objects can be distracting.

For a personal profile, choose a recent photograph that represents you accurately. For a business, a recognisable interior, entrance or brand may be more suitable. Every type of profile does not need the same kind of picture: what matters is that visitors understand what they are looking at.

Lighting and cropping matter more than a strong filter

Soft daylight near a window is a simple starting point. A very bright window behind the subject can make the rest of the image too dark. Try another angle and review the result without extra effects before uploading.

Leave some space around the main subject. The website may crop a thumbnail differently from a gallery image, so important details close to an edge can disappear. Heavy retouching and filters can change colours or appearance so much that the image no longer represents its subject accurately.

Build the gallery around what each image adds

A few different, high-quality photos are often clearer than a series of nearly identical shots. A personal profile might complement a portrait with another natural photograph; a business can show different parts of its premises. Each picture should add something the previous one did not show.

• Start with the most representative, current image.
• Remove blurry photographs and unnecessary duplicates.
• Do not mix old and current images in a way that creates a misleading impression.
• After uploading, check the actual order and thumbnails on the website.

Check the background before uploading

A photograph may accidentally include documents on a desk, a parcel bearing a name, another person reflected in a mirror or a vehicle registration plate. Enlarge the whole image and inspect its edges. Remove anything you do not want to publish from the composition before taking a new photo, or choose another shot.

Use only photographs you are entitled to publish and that comply with the NIGHTY content rules. Other people's images from a search engine are not a suitable substitute for your own profile. Uploading a file is also no reason to assume that all of its technical metadata has automatically been removed.

What to check after saving

Open the public profile and check three places: the main photo, gallery and card in the profile directory. Look at sharpness, cropping and any empty space. Check the mobile view too. If a photograph does not work well, try another crop of the original instead of repeatedly saving an already reduced thumbnail.

Edit photographs in My profile. Find an introduction in the NIGHTY guide and answers to other questions in the FAQ.