Andy - I'm new to portraits but am realising that the details make all of the difference. What you include is obviously as important as what you leave out, but I've always tended to work with what was there and include/exclude based on that. I'm now learning how to "build" a scene.
Hi Reinardina, I like your image and think it could do with just a bit tighter crop so that it fills the frame more. That's just my opinion though, it probably wouldn't need it if printed and framed.
I was always told that you are paying for the film and the paper so you may as well use it all! I know with digital it's not applicable in terms of cost, but I do try and fill the frame as much as possible. And doing this in camera helps you get the best out of every pixel. Rather than cropping in image later and discarding say 20% of you pixels. We spend so much on high mega pixel cameras then throw them away at the click of a button on the computer!