Few of us know how to capture strong emotion

Many of us know how to capture a good composition (there are tons of tutorials on the web about this).

However very few of us know how to capture strong emotion in a photograph.

To me, emotion is more important than composition in a frame. Why? Because emotion is what hits us in the gut, and burns itself into our memory. A photograph without emotion is dead.

Not only that, but as humans— we are emotionally-driven creatures. Anything that strikes fear, excitement, or novelty into our minds will be more memorable.

But what is the best way to capture emotion? Some suggestions:

    Hand-gestures: If your subject leaning their body against their fist? Is your subject scratching his chin? Is your subject giving you the middle-finger? Try not to photograph your subject with their hands just by their sides. Try to engage them to make an interesting hand-gesture by commenting on their face, hair, or bodily accessories. Or be patient and wait until your subject makes an interesting hand-gesture— then photograph.
     Body-language: Is your subject slouched over, or standing upright? Is your subject leaning towards someone, or leaning backwards? A person’s body-language shows a lot of their emotion, and inner-thoughts. Also as a tip, if you mimic the body language of another person, you can better empathize and feel their emotions.
     Eye contact: The saying: “Eyes are the windows to the soul” is very true. A photograph with strong eye contact can strike fear, excitement, or sensuality into our photographs. It is very difficult to make sustained eye-contact with someone else, that is why whenever we make a photograph with strong eye-contact, it tends to be more memorable. Experiment making photos with your subjects looking directly into the lens and away.
     Aesthetics: You can feel certain emotions in a photograph based on the aesthetics. For example, a black and white photograph will tend to feel more nostalgic, sad, and retrospective. A vibrant color photograph shows more excitement, joy, and has a more contemporary flavor. There is no “right” or “wrong” type of post-processing to use in your work — but know that the aesthetics of an image will affect the emotion.

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2016/09/19/100-photography-tips-for-beginners/