This is particularly important if your surroundings are perhaps integral to the portrait itself.
If you can play around with a 1.8 or 2.8 aperture, then you can have a lot of fun exploring this, and if it isn’t necessarily working for you, there’s always a more narrow approach. This is particularly important if your surroundings are perhaps integral to the portrait itself. In which case a wider composition and smaller aperture can help. Just be careful not to let that depth of field hinder your subject matter.