I'n no expert on this but what I'm practising:
1. soft lighting: I prefer to shoot at home close to a window and avoid direct sunlight. For outdoor portrait, I think an open shade area would be good but then you still need to watch for light in background. I would prefer a cloudy day for portrait. A studio setup would be ideal but then you need the light set which can be expensive.
2. controlled background. I tend to use large aperture to isolate distracting background, and also play with the distance between subject and background.