The Bookseller.com makes it hard for me to empathize when I need to “Register to read for free”.
I’m tired of having to surrender my time, effort and personal information to read someone else’s propagandas. If you want me to read your propaganda, you can at least pay for it.
The problem is 100% crappy people. However, there are things you can do photographically to "help". If you're willing to spend the time to learn the "art" of photography, there are tricks to enhancing some aspects while playing down others.
For example, wide-angle lenses will distort faces in unappealing ways. For 35mm cameras, 70mm is the recommended lens for portraits for that reason. There are secrets to posing, lighting and dress that help make more flattering pictures.
Tailors have to (used to?) deal with similar problems with people. There are tricks to make a suit more flattering for a person, but there are no perfect solutions.
If you want to keep taking pictures professionally, you'll probably want to learn how to dress, pose and light people for the most flattering effect. You'll also want to take social training to learn how to use spoken and body language to help sway/calm/reassure people. You might also find an assistant who is really good socially do to the posing. That will let you stay behind the camera and focus on the technical aspects, if that is the part that appeals to you.