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What are the best basic settings to start shooting digital photography outdoors in natural light?

I'm going to be photographing portrait photos (some up-close and some full body) in natural light, outdoors. I've been shooting on auto, and find that the photos will come out blurry, too soft, or wayyy too bright and contrasted.

Firstly, I would stop using Auto settings.

We are photographers! If you wanted to use Auto settings, then you should have not bought a Canon 40D, rather you should of bought a Point and shoot cheap thing.

Lets start by changing your ISO setting to about 100. The lower your ISO Setting, the less sensitive the camera becomes to light. the opposite is also true, the higher the ISO setting, the more sensitive the camera becomes to light. therefore, the following makes sense:

-ISO 100 - Bright Sunlight Outdoor shooting
-ISO 200 - Good Sunlight Outdoor shooting
-ISO 400 - Well lit Indoor shots
-ISO 800 - Average lit indoor shots
-ISO 1600 and above - Low light

Now, lets have a look at your aperture setting. The lower your aperture setting / f number, the bigger the aperture hole and the more sunlight on the camera sensor. The Larger the aperture setting / f number, the smaller the aperture hole and the less light on the camera sensor. This totally depends on what you want to achieve in your shot. also take note that aperture settings has an effect on your depth of field. the lower the f number, a more shallow depth is created (blurred background). the higher the f number, the more the background is in focus. i would suggest using a lower aperture setting like F 2.8. but just play with this. the benefit of digital photography is that you can take multiple shots and simply delete the ones you dont want. therefore take the same shot using different aperture settings.

then you probably want to use the flash! You probably thinking why on earth should i use a flash in bright sunlight. well...Ill tell you why. a flash (preferably a small flash) can soften the shadows without bleaching out detail and color. this technique is called Fill in Flash. this works particularly well for portraits.

I would probably set the camera to "A" mode / aperture mode. this way, I can control the aperture (like I said, put it as small as possible) and the camera will handle the shutter speed.

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