Filling the frame with a subject's face is a great way to take a portrait. Another approach, and one that i think of as an environmental portrait, is when you use a wide angle lens to encompass not only the subject, but the person's environment as well. This gives context, it tells a story, and if it's done well the background can add artistry and interest to the picture. In this case, I used a moderate focal length -- 32mm on a 24-105mm zoom -- to shoot this woman from the Danessech tribe in Ethiopia. I used late afternoon sun and positioned her so she was side lit for drama, and my relatively small lens aperture provided sufficient depth of field so the entire scene was sharp.
My settings were 1/400th of a second, f/13, 800 ISO, hand held.