[Ayoh]

I fully agree with you.

 

These head portraits are primarily driven by the subject in conjunction with good lighting (which is an art IMHO). 

 

As you mentioned things are different when the environment is actually included rather than excluded. Even wedding photography, as profane as it may be, it surely more demanding.

 

PS: Don't misinterpret the "profane wedding photography". It is important for the couple but at least some of the professional photographers that I talk to call it the "graveyard of their dreams".

I also agree that good wedding photography is quite challenging (certainly more so than fashion and celebrity portraits) and although I have no interest in it, I acknowledge that some of the creative and technical execution of the top photographers is actually really impressive. Especially given the highly competitive market and time/location/topic/cost constrained genre. I guess whenever you have talented people creatively competing within defined limits you get high quality outcomes (except when market access is not level such as in celebrity portrait photography where established aristocrats can dominate ) 

 

Google "best wedding photography" to see some examples