Portrait Advice

[down2earth2]

A friend likes my photos and wants me to take his picture for a CD he's making. It's just a face shot, but I know there's more to shooting a good portait than point and shoot (I've tried to warn him about my ignorance).

So can anyone offer me some advice on the main things I should watch out for (lighting, background...).

[D Rock]

lighting is HUGE.....wut type of portrait is it going to be?? normal school picture like shot or something else?

[down2earth2]

[QUOTE=D Rock]lighting is HUGE.....wut type of portrait is it going to be?? normal school picture like shot or something else?[/QUOTE]
He's pretty vague leaving it mostly to me. He said maybe standing in front of a rock wall(?). So say it's an outdoors shot. I'm concerned that a sunny shot will have too much contrast. Should I shoot on a cloudy day? Should I not worry about the sun and just bring up the shadows later with Phtoshop?

[D Rock]

cloudy day is all right, but its also good to shoot around noon when the sun is directly above, then take big white boards (like poster board) and use them to bounce the sunlight off of to eliminate the downward shadows
sorry for the delayed response