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Note: When having a photographic portrait done of a loved one, keep this in mind.
Flash photography is the most common way to have portraits taken. If this is not done by someone schooled in lighting techniques you may do yourself a disservice.
When I try to paint a realistic portrait from a photograph with flash mounted close to the camera lens, and most do, it ruins the effect of realistic modeling on the subjects' face.
I try to do my own photographic lighting for my portraits, but sometimes it is impossible because the subject has passed on. This saddens me because I can only re-create the image given to me in a photo. I cannot alter the lighting much, because I have never met the sitter, to see the very individualistic nuances of the features.

A photo, carefully taken, of a sitter is often more life-like taken beside a window. Or, on a cloudy day, outside is wonderful, if you remember to get close in, to pick up facial expressions.
This is an example of why portrait artists want to do the most accurate rendition of a cherished one. We can only re-create what the flash photograph shows us.
Once a year take your special folks to a window, a picnic, and shoot a whole roll or fill a memory card with digital pics. Or, you can take them to a photo studio known for dramatic lighting portraiture.

When cherished ones are gone, the small effort to take memorable shots of them, is a lesson too late.

Doug MacBean