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To get good directional light out of doors in the middle of the day you you have to be really really good, or just lucky.
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...or happen to stumble on a few good books on outdoor portrait photography. The single most valuable tip I've read on outdoor lighting is to put the subject under something, to block the light coming from above. Then the light has to come in from the side. Put them on a porch with a roof, under a big tree, etc.
The only alternative to that idea that I have found is to backlight the subject. That still works best either very early or late in the day, though. Otherwise all the light in the mid-day sky makes the subject squint too much. The main drawback to this lighting scheme is that there's hardly any definition in the form of the face, but you can often get a nice glowing edge on the hair or on the body that kind of makes up for it.