There are only 3 kinds of photographs.

Portrait

Environmental

Candid

When you mix portrait and the environment, you get candid.

For a clean, minimalist portrait. When you create a representation of a person/s, I think its best to eliminate distractions. I mean the background. I can be plain white, or bokeh'd. So your focus is on the subject and the viewers see it.

Environment, may it be landscape, bouquet of flowers, your car; is what it is.

Candid, which I can also call PJ, is when you mix the two. I'd rather have them not smiling nor looking at the camera. Its better when they're just interacting with the environment or with each other.

BTW, just came back from Spain and visited a lot of museums. Went into the Palacio Real de Madrid and saw a portrait painting of the Royal Family. They were side-by-side, standing and smiling. Its so different from all the classic paintings.

Boom