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When I first started photographing people for portraits I took my knowledge of landscape photography and just went right into it. WRONG! I found very quickly that people are actually different than trees.
I started with my family of course and found quite rapidly that saying "look at me and smile" wasn't going to cut it. I practiced (and practiced) and found that no matter what you do or how how you do it you will learn something new each time you have a photo shoot.
As diiferent as people are there are as many different ways to elicit the right "look" or "smile" for each portrait.
Is the shot a formal shot? Is it a family shot? Are you photographing a child?
I'll start with photographing a single person right now. The lights, background or colors don't matter right now, just the expression. First, in my opinion, never shoot a single person straight on full face for a portrait.
Always turn them to one side just a little. TILT the head. Never tilt a mans head toward the shoulder nearest the camera.
Women can tilt either way but AWAY from the camera always looks better to me.
The expression; I try to get different kinds of expressions from the "no smile" to a big grin. You never know what they will like, (although most folks don't like the BIG GRIN, give them a choice). I want them to look my way so I need to get their attention. The first shot will typically be a "small smile" shot. I place my left hand (my remote is in my right) above my camera. When I'm ready to shoot, I say, "Look at me... pleasant smile!" and then I raise my hand about 2 inches, and point my index finger up. This gets the subjects attention, I already have the smile (I hope) and SNAP.
OK, they know where and how bright the lights are, what I will do and what I may say to them. The second shot I will go all out for a big grin by repeating the above motions and saying something dumb like, Look at me and say "beanie Weenies", this usually gets a good chuckle and then a good grin. I try to wait for just a milli-second after getting a big grin, when the grin JUST starts to fade into a smile is usually the most natural expression. Be sure to keep their attention by holding you hand or index finger above the camera this will usually keep their eyes where you want them, especially with kids.
The rest of the shoot will go about the same, turn, tilt, smile, snap! If this is helpful in any way I'll contribute more when it comes to couples, groups, children and even pets.
This may have been covered before in greater detail so if I'm repeating what others have covered just let me know.
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