Take lots of pictures and shoot often; use various angles while shooting your subject – high, low, side, close up and far away and using different settings. Use the "Rule of Thirds" by dividing your viewfinder into thirds when composing a picture. Experiment with putting the subject into right, left, high, low areas in order to compose photos and shoot against a simple background. You don’t want tree branches sticking out of people’s heads.

Also try shooting in the morning or afternoon and avoid mid day when the light is less flattering. If shooting indoors, open the curtains, turn on the lights and avoid the flash which distorts color if you can.

Shoot at the highest resolution you can so if you need to crop the picture at a later time you’ll have lot’s of detail to work with. Even though it will take up more space on your memory card, you’ll have more flexibility later on.

Get familiar with your digital camera settings so you can calibrate them for special situations as they come up. You don’t want to be fumbling for a manual, and will in all likihood miss the flavor you could have added to a shot.