Common portrait mistake made by photographers

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 1000, ƒ/4.8, 1/500

When making a portrait of a person way too often people end up with a photo like this one above. What they are really looking for is a photo like this one below.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 1000, ƒ/4.8, 1/500

As you can easily see the background in the first photo is quite distracting and competing with the face of the person. In the second photo some people might even say the subject just "pops" out of the photo.

Notice the camera settings are identical.

The difference is the distance the subject is to the background.  In the first photo the person is right next to the background and the next one the subject is 30 feet away from the background.

If you have a very distracting background like the brick wall, move the subject very far away to be able to throw the background out of focus.

Even if the background is a plain solid color wall, pull the person away from it so you are not seeing the texture of the wall.