I take lots of photo's of our children and grand children so I would like to ask you budding photographers out there "what is the best way to take a portrait" ?

indoors or outdoors?

indoors is difficult without the correct lighting,so if i use a dedicated flashgun i always try and bounce the flash off the ceiling,to reduce harshness and shadows around the subjects facial features ,also fit a diffuser to the flasgun ,,or if you can use as much natural lighting thats available in the room dont use flash at all...... i,ll not go into studio lighting, but its the only way to take good portraits indoors, you can make shadows work for you especially in black and white,also try and get the background behind your subject out of focus so that it pulls the eyes straight to the person in the photograph,also if the subject has the sun behind them dont forget to use fill flash or else the features will be too dark,try a wee bit of soft focus as well either in photoshop or use a soft focus filter,

Thanks Neil, its mostly outside I take them, like in trees and play parks. I think a lot of the good ones I take are more to pot luck than anything else.....

Holy....picture , now I understand why your pictures in the potm-section are so good

Just one note on taking pictures of your children:

Children do often tend to feel the need to 'pose' for the camera, or should I say act up more, so for more natural shots (outdoors) use a larger lens, get further away and then it's not so obvious that you're photographing them. In this way you will get some great natural shots.

Thanks everyone for your help....I am planning on going out with the kids this weekend so hopefully I will try out some of your ideas.....