Look for props

For this second shot, we positioned

Alex on a bar stool, with the bar subtly defocused in the background and the flash positioned just off-camera to the right. When you’re photographing subjects in their surroundings, you can often find props to connect them. Here, we used two attractively shaped glasses to pick up the lights and add some ‘sparkle’ to the scene. It’s worth spending some time looking at the background, the way the light is falling on it, and the arrangement of props and objects around your subject. Details really do count.