I had to laugh at your shot of "Checking her out"..were those people real.
Actually lighting is the answer to nearly everything..if there wasnt light there would be nothing.
But then the quality of the image doesnt alwyas show thru in photoshop and it needs tweaks.
I dont know of any lighting tutorials but in my own very very humble opinion keeping it simple may be better than trying to haul studio lights every where. 
I remember one guy in photography using seven lights for a protrait shot..why I wondered.
Plus if you use a lot of lights by the time you set them up the subject starts getting pretty bored whilst you try to see which light is cancelling out the other.
With fewer lights you may get a far more dramatic effect.
The shot of your son works well because there are not too many lights.Did he volunteer or did you nail him to the seat ;-)