I've only skimmed this thread, so I'm not sure if this has already been mentioned yet. I noticed the official portrait photographers on a cruise ship taking posed pictures in a certain way, and a little while ago I asked a photographer who was taking pictures of my band (who I noticed was doing the same thing) what the trick was.
He composes his shot first, then just before he focuses, he points the centre AF point at the subject's eyes and uses that to focus, then reframes his image as it was before pressing the shutter button the rest of the way.
I've started doing that whenever I take pictures of people standing still now - get them posed and frame the shot, half-press to auto-focus on the eyes, reframe without letting go of the button and then complete the shot - it's made a surprising difference to the standard of my posed shots, even when they're just intended as quick snaps of friends/relatives.
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