There are many things which affects how a portrait might eventually turn out. That includes the following factors:

1. Dress/suit/outfit
2. Hairstyling
3. Make-up
4. Choice of lens and perspective
5. Choice of film and equipment
6. Processing and printing
7. Exposure and aperture
8. Light
9. Light modifying techniques
10. Location
11.  

1. Dress/suit/outfit


The dress or outfit must suit the surroundings. It's amazing how many photographers don't take this into consideration when shooting. A outfit may look great on its own, but look out of place on location. I bet you have seen swimsuit models strutting their stuff in gardens. I think it looks kinda stupid.
 
 

2. Hairstyling


A good hairstylist is essential. He can keep the hair in check. Many perfect shots are ruined by messy hair or some stubborn strands of hair cascading down the face. It may not seem obvious when you're in the heat of shooting, but it is very noticeable in your final shots. The hairstylist's job is to take note of all these mistakes, and keep the hair supple and glossy. Just like you are a professional in photography, hair styling is also a complex field. Leave it to the professionals if you can afford it.
 
 

3. Make-up


Probably one of the most crucial component of your shoot is make-up. This is especially true for glamour shoots. You'd rather be without your assistant than without a make-up artist. The face is what people are looking at in your photos. If it ain't done well, you're going to have a hard time trying to make a good photo out of the situation. Many models cannot be trusted to do their own makeup. In this highly specialized world, you won't believe the intricacy of make-up techniques. Different events warrant different styles of make-up, just like you don't use your large format to shoot animals in Zimbabwe. Likewise, there're different kinds of "looks" for different purposes. The make-up artist knows best.

Make-up for photography is different from daily make-up. Colours will not render as strong as in real life on film, so you'd have to apply more or use slightly stronger colours. This is especially true if you're using low-contrast pastel coloured films. Did you know that black-and-white photography demands a different set of palette of make-up too ??
 
 

4. Choice of lens and perspective


Perspective refers to the change in viewpoint by moving the position of the camera. By zooming in and out, you only crop the image, but the perspective remains unchanged. By moving your feet, you change the perspective. And the background size and distance changes apparently. It is true that there is no such thing as a ideal portrait lens you must use, but favorite lenses for portraiture includes the 85mm, 105mm, 135mm and 180mm. Prime lenses offer large apertures like f2.0 to f2.8, which renders the background into a pleasingly pastel out-of-focus backdrop. Use the maximum aperture if possible. You get smooth out-of-focus highlights and the loss of image quality through diffraction isn't a issue at all.
 
 

5. Choice of film and equipment


I prefer using print film for taking portraits. They offer lower contrast and better control in printing. Try using fine-grained pastel coloured films, or maybe super-coarse grained film like the Scotch 1000 for that grainy and dreamy look. Some recommended portraiture films include Kodak GPX, VPS and VPL, or Fuji NPS and NPL. Also recommended B/W films include Kodak T-Max 100 or 3200P and Ilford Delta 100.

Good equipment need not be high-tech and expensive. Always use a lenshood whenever possible. And unless you have rock-steady hands, use a support. A monopod is preferable to a tripod. It is much more maneuverable and offers the right amount of support without being clumsy. Monopods and lenshoods are among the most underrated photographic equipment.
 
 

6. Processing and printing

A good printer can be the difference between a fantastic print or a mediocre one. Don't skimp on the final stage. Why spend thousands of dollars buying the best lenses and cameras with the finest films, and ruin the overall results with a one-hour neighborhood lab ?
 
 

7. Exposure and aperture

Use a lightmeter for a incident reading whenever possible. It is more reliable than a reflected reading from your camera, no matter what gizmos your camera may contain e.g. matrix D or what-have-you. It won’t be fooled by white or black fabrics. Take into account any filters. If you're using a variable zoom such as a 70-210mm f4-5.6, you'll run into the problem of not knowing what is the exact light transmission of your lens at different focal length. 

Negative films benefit from slight over-exposure of around 1 or 2 stops. This gives it allowance against underexposure. A slightly over-exposed negative will yield better shadow detail and fine grain structure. A custom printer will always smile when he gets a slightly overexposed negative, because he can pull out shadow details from it. On the other hand, there is little he can do about a under-exposed negative. The prints will inevitably be brown and murky, and very grainy too !!!

Positives, chromes, transparencies or slides - whatever you call them, benefit from a dose of under-exposure. Slides have very narrow exposure latitude, so be very careful about your exposure. Make sure it is dead-on. Giving slides a slight under-exposure compensation of 1/3 stops to 1/2 or 2/3 stops gives it very punchy colours and a slightly denser look. Depending on how you want the final output of the slide to be - whether it is to be a R-print, Ilfochrome print or in a publication, this may or may not be required.
 
 

8. Light

Light is very important in a shoot. In fact, it is beyond words to describe how important it is. Why? Photography is basically a phrase of the words "drawing with light". Light is the principle ingredient in photography !! Without light, you can forget about taking pictures. When I use the word light, I mean good light that is flattering to portraiture, not just any junk light. I find that dawn and dusk periods provide the best light - warm and soft. Of course, we must recognize that it is not possible to get good light all the time, but what I want to say is that lighting can make or break a picture. See the next point for more details on lighting.
 
 

9. Light modifying techniques


One must be really naïve to think that good light exists every time you wish to shoot. In fact, it is the opposite. Good light exists when you are not holding a camera, and foul lighting appears just before you shoot. I think God forbids photography. What should we do when God is not on our side ?

Light modification is what I call for the techniques used to change the nature of natural lighting. There are basically a few types of technique:

1. Diffusion
2. Fill-in flash
3. Cutting off
4. Reflection

Diffusion is when the light is too harsh, such as a mid-day sun. You will get much better results if you use a large diffusing screen to diffuse the light. The screen can be bought commercially from Lasolite or made from some white transparent cloths held together by PVC pipes joined to make a frame. You'll lose 1 to 2 stops of light, but much better quality lighting. The diffusing screen may cast a blue tint on the subject, so you may want to use a 81A warming filter to warm things up a bit. You will lose 1/2 or 1 stop again, or you can correct the tint during printing. That's why as I said before, you need a good printer !!

Fill-in flash is to put light into places where there is no light or insufficient light using flash. Direct flash, whether used as fill-in or on its own, has as much usage to me as a ash-tray on a motorcycle. It is way too harsh and frequently very obvious. My favorite fill-in technique is those employed by the famous Annie Leibovitz. She cuts off extraneous light sources using a large black screen and fills in using a large softbox on a powerful studio strobe, to give even and warm lighting on the subject, while the background is bathed in natural lighting. It is amazing how well she does it, and how natural she makes it seem. You can see the famous American Express advertisements series which shows famous people in different settings. It looks as if all of them were lighted by extremely warm and gentle rays from a setting sun.

Cutting off is the usage of black flags or cards to reduce the light from one side. Sometimes it is necessary to cut off light to show form of an object. When a model is lighted by a overcast sky, the lighting is often flat and soft. This may make the model's face seem too round and chubby. Using a black flag on one side (kept out of the camera's view of course) will cast some shadows on one side to show some form of the cheekbones. Of course, a good make-up artist would brush the cheekbones ever so slightly to bring out the features of the face. I said, use a make-up artist !!

Reflectors are just like the opposite of black flags. Instead of cutting back light, they induce more lights into areas where light is lacking. They are basically just white or silver cards/fabrics to bounce back some light onto the subject, to reduce contrast. They are available commercially from Lasolite or you can make your own, using some ingenuity.
 

Location

Ever wondered why I placed location last in the list ?? There is no coincidence. IMO, location is the least important. Why?? Because in most shoots, the background is out-of-focus. Only the subject is the focal point. The surroundings serves only as the defocused background. Of course, I'm not suggesting a total disregard for the location, but what I'm saying is that out of all the mentioned factors, the other 10 easily surpass the location factor in importance. I'd rather have the first ten factors in control than be given a good location but a lousy subject. After all, this is about portrait photography, not architecture or landscape photography !!
 

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