To be completely fair, the image I am using for this illustration was not taken by a photographer, or even a fauxtographer. It’s just a snapshot of a little girl at a beach, taken by a mom (and used with permission – thank you!!)
But this image is a great illustration for an issue that is often seen in the work of fauxtographers – a whole lot of crap going on in the background.
When a Professional Photographer creates a portrait, he or she looks at dozens of elements of the scene and sums them all up, nearly simultaneously, to determine how they will affect the final shot. The direction of light, the intensity of light, weather conditions that can affect the light in the next few minutes, the near background, the far background, the foreground, other items and people in the scene, or just outside the scene who may wander in, the chosen depth of field – all of these things and more are analyzed and dealt with constantly by a Professional Photographer operating with years of experience. And that’s just dealing with the scene itself! – not even accounting for the attention to detail that needs to be paid to the actual SUBJECT of the shot.