need advice on head shot portraits

[shoeytennis]

i am helping out a friend who needs some quick head and full body shots. i am not a people photo taker so im nto sure exactly what to do, i am more of a nature guy lol.
but yeah anyone who can give me any kindof advice at all on doing some head and full body shots i would love it!

[Paul79UF]

I dug this link out of my favorites...hope it helps

http://www.photo.net/portraits/intro

[wh0128]

Don't cut off the arms at the elbow and don't cut off the legs at the knees. It should be full body, then waist up, then head and shoulders, then maybe a head shot which doesn't appeal to me.

[Colin T]

Hi shoeytennis you should be called tennis shoe

when photographing people try and have as much light in the room as possible. This will help reduce redeye and shadows on their face. Also if you have an adjustable flash try and bounce the light off the roof and back down to the person. Its more flattering.

Have the person stand against a plain coloured wall or door and make sure there aren't any fixtures or features hanging behind them.. People look funning with clocks sticking out of their heads. You can have ornaments next to them but nothing directly behind them. Make sure the clothes they are wearing don't match the colour of the wall.

When framing the image in the camera make sure there is a bit of space around the person. You can always crop images but you can't add to them later.

With the full body pics make sure you get their feet in the frame and as well as the rest of the body. Turn the camera 90 degrees and move back if necessary.

Portraits are generally shot from the bottom of the sternum (where the ribs join just above your stomach) and up. Most people take from the waist up and crop down on the computer.

Get the model to stand or sit in the one position while you take a number of pics from slightly different angles. This will give you slightly different lighting effects and some may look better than others.

Try taking some with the camera on a tripod without a flash.

Make sure the camera is about level with their face.

Take lots of pics and have fun