How to Shoot Better Portrait Photographs

PCW - Use natural lighting whenever possible; it will make your subjects look better. Shoot early or late in the day–and if possible shoot outdoors, in the shade. If you are taking pictures indoors and need to use your camera’s flash, turn on the red-eye reduction mode and supplement the camera’s flash with as much other lighting as possible. If your camera’s flash can be tilted, bounce the light off a wall or ceiling.

Make sure depth of field is as narrow as possible, leaving the background pleasantly blurry. To do that, you can use your digital camera’s portrait mode, which is designed to minimize depth of field. If your camera has an Aperture Priority mode, you can switch to that and dial in the smallest f/stop value available, such as f/5.6 or f/4. Link.