I thought it might be fun to talk briefly about shooting these images:
I actually brought along a (relatively) recent addition to my lighting gear, a Photek Softlighter II (60 inch).
The gear I brought with me to London was (all prices usd):
- Olympus OM-D E-M5
- Cactus V5 transceivers (~$75 per pair)
- Yongnuo YN-560 (~$70) (GN58)
- Cowboy Studio stands (inexpensive, ~$13 with case)
- Photek Softlighter II (~$180)
I actually had 2 YN-560’s (and stands) with me. Turns out if I remove the mounting screw from the tip of the stands they will just fit into my checked luggage…
Also, travel pro-tip for photographers: Delta lets you carry-on an umbrella as a “freebie” item (doesn’t count towards carry-on limits). Technically, the Softlighter is an umbrella - it even unfolds convincingly if they want to see it! 
The two shots above were taken in Finsbury park at the end of the photowalk (just before pub time).
I had inserted one YN560 into the umbrella @½ power to give me a little boost. We were lucky to actually have a very pretty, sunny day in the park for the photowalk, so I was having to overpower the sun a bit in these shots.
The other YN560 was firing on roughly Âľ power. This one had the trigger attached and the internal YN560 had its optical slave turned on.
This was all on a stand within about a meter or so of Mairi. Thanks to Michael Schumacher we actually have a nice BTS shot of the setup:
I also appear to have gained a few pounds in this photo… 
These were both shot at f/8.
The top one I bumped the shutter speed a bit over my sync speed to bring the ambient down (and the focus was the top 1/3 of the composition, so a slight shutter drag was ok for me).
What’s neat is that once you have the environment dialed in a bit, you can let the subject do their own thing. You can then interact with them and not have to worry as much about the technical side of things. Mairi was super patient with us while we shot and experimented!
There are some portraits coming soon of folks where not having to worry much about the technical side of things was quite nice. @Leonidas did a great job engaging and talking with subjects when he was shooting, I noticed.
I can say that I’m a big fan of the softlighter. It’s a nice large, diffuse, and (relatively) inexpensive modifier that has enough flexibility to be used for headhots or even larger full-body shots as needed.
