It's a tale of two photographs. The top one was taken by Peter Souza, White House photographer for the Obama and Reagan administrations. The bottom one was taken by someone at the meeting. It might have been a professional. It might have been Kellyanne Conway from her notorious perch on the couch to the left.
The top one is dynamic. There's a lot of shadow, but it's balanced by the light on the faces of the mayors (who were meeting with Mr. Obama.) Notice that even though he's got his back to the camera and is in shadow, he's the focal point of the photo because he's who everyone is looking at. It also helps that he's moving.
The bottom one is static. Everyone is standing around having just put on their taking-a-picture smile. There's a big band of darkness across the center with the men's suits that just sits there because it's pretty much balanced on each side and on the top and bottom. Although Mr. Trump is at the center of the picture, he's not really a focal point. He's hardly in focus, being not more than a peach point with a red tail. The second photo also does a poor job of rendering the different skin colors well, unlike the Souza, where there's variation in the different tones of the people in the picture.
Souza has been doing this for years and it shows. He knows how to compose a picture, how to give it drama and weight. The second picture is the pedestrian shot that anyone, really anyone could do on their cell phone.
If you want a high level of performance, if you want expertise, you hire someone who has experience, who knows what they're doing. The Trump administration hasn't gotten around to hiring their official photographer apparently. It's as if they didn't care that every aspect of this work is better when you hire a professional.
