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Quote: I would like to know where you get the idea that good planning of composition and proper reference are not important.
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The composition is handed to you in the photo, and it's a dynamic one (I spelled out the minor adjustments). There are three main values in the picture, which is all you need for a succesful picture. If you need a photo to come up with a decent flesh tone, you shouldn't be a portrait painter.
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The composition in this photo is unexecutible to me as a painting, so, no, I think it is not handed to me. And who said anything about the flesh tones? And three main values? What does this mean? Personally, I would want a complete value range in my reference. The face in this reference is reduced to just features with out good modeling light by the flash.
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This still will not solve the problems of the lighting which is most important in any painting, or the fact that the baby's leg is cut off. Also the fact that pulling off the changes you suggest without any new reference and without doing some sketches of the subject from life would be incredibly difficult. In the end, it would still, even with the most skilled artist, produce a less then desirable painting.
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This is very, very simple stuff. Anyone that claims to be a portrait artist can do those changes I mentioned in their sleep. The only hard part would be painting those enormous glasses... seriously.
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Oh, I would like to see this simple stuff pulled off well. Even the great Sargent struggled with parts of paintings, and that was with what he was painting sitting right in front of him. You seem to have a rather strange view of what is simple and or your idea of a finish is different from mine. Although a slight change in a pose can be done easily, even the best of artist will have a stand-in pose in the new position or use their own hand or use part of another photo as reference when making a big change - and the changes you note are big changes, since the right hand is not visible at all in the reference photo.
Since you insist that it is easy, and that this photo has such great information, I must ask please post some of your work. I really would like to see it, since you have to be one of the best artists I have ever had the chance to meet. I say this because I have had instruction from some very, very talented artists who would still not make the kinds of changes without reference of some kind to guide them, even if it was just to do a sketch of someone else in the position they wanted.
The instructor I most admired would have refused to paint any commission from any photo (except maybe a if the person was dead, but in that case he would want many photos of the person so he could see their features from different views) since he only worked from life. Although he could paint from memory after his subject left he would never make changes like you suggest from memory. He would have the person pose again in the new position. Why? Because it is not easy, as you say, to pull off the changes as you say and not have it look contrived or unnatural in some way. Moving a arm more than 1 inch affects everything else, not just that arm.