For people including formal portraits:

1. Get the pose right. There are rules for posing that are different for posing
men and women. The most important general rule is: Don't through
framing cut the body at joints such as elbow, wrist, knees, ankles, etc.

2. Make sure that the clothing, jewellry, and perhaps make-up contribute to
the look and the shot, rather than distracting from the face and the eyes.

3. Get the lighting correct by anticipating and dealing with lighting problems.
Flash, auxiliary lighting, and reflectors are some of your tools. Shadows
can be a strength or weakness depending on their control by the
photographer.

4. Get the skin colour accurate. Minor variations in colour temperature and
lighting can change skin colour.

5. Get the red out of the eyes: red rims, rey inner corner, red veins, etc.
through the use of Visine or postprocessing.

6. Get the blue out of the eyes. The white of the eyes should be white, not
blue.

7. Make sure the hair is combed, out of the eyes and flattering.

8. Use pose, lighting, and in some cases even make-up to flatter the positive
and de-emphasize distracting features such as pointed or double chin,
teeth or skin problems etc.

9. Use postprocessing to solve any visual problems that you did not notice
when shooting.

That will start you off in one area.

Tegan