Learn photography yourself before instructing a friend to shoot you

Before you can tell a friend how to take a good picture of you, you need to learn how to do it yourself. If you cannot take good pictures, you will not be able to instruct someone who is probably even more clueless. Fabrizio Rausa's approach is to let the beginner sit or pose first, then take a picture of them himself. That way he can evaluate the lighting and background on the spot. After that, he simply tells them to do exactly what he just did for them, and it almost always turns out well. The skill has to exist in you first before you can transfer it.