Have the lights been switched on? Yes! The Photo Fixer Reader says says

I had such a fun day with Alex in the studio. He has just the right attitude and ability to be able to take his photography to the next level. Alex is very good with people, and already has a great understanding of the basics of photography. Apart from the obvious thing that he needs to work on – his lighting skills – Alex should look at his composition and avoid including too much negative space around his subject’s head.

When it comes to lighting, I would suggest Alex remembers what we covered today and just keeps on practising, practising and practising! Alex was able to spot most of the time where he was going wrong, but just didn’t have the technical skills to be able to fix it.

When taking close-up portraits, Alex needs to remember to shoot using longer focal-length lenses in order to flatter his subject’s facial features.

Alex already has loads of lights, and I would suggest he gets to grips with what he has first before he invests in any more. I would, however, recommend that he buys a white background because this will greatly help him with his portrait photography. I had a fabulous day with Claire and Florence. I learnt so much! The biggest lesson was that spending a few moments building up lighting is time well invested in getting a stunning image at the end of the shoot.

Claire taught me not to just position my lights and switch on; but to turn on the lights one by one, taking test shots as I went, observing the lighting patterns. The other thing that shocked me is that even though I use budget speedlights, they are effective, flexible and more powerful than I imagined.