Editorial Portrait: Business Shoot in Old Montreal with men’s Stylist Patricia Trepanier

In the last few years, I’ve struggled to define the kind of portrait photography I was aiming for. Only recently did I realize that what mattered to me was the need to match my subject to a location that had significance for him/her. I also realized that I tend to enjoy going with the energy of my subject and work from there.

Patricia is a men’s stylist since 2008 and I have known her for a few years. I already had the chance to collaborate with her a few times in the past. So when I met her for this shoot, I told her that the goal was to make a portrait of Patricia – The Stylist, the same way I would do it for a client or magazine.

I thought her studio was the perfect location to get started. My goal for this shoot was also to try and work on simple and effective flash photography that would work for assignments that do not allow for complex lighting. For that reason, I had brought a single SB-900 equipped with a Lastolite 24×24″ square softbox triggered remotely using Pocket Wizard TT1/TT5.

Old Montreal is usually pretty busy during summer and autumn, so after walking around for a little bit till, we found an old cobblestone street where foot/car traffic was really light.

I absolutely love the symmetry from the two photos below. I like how the flash makes her stand out and I found it was a perfect location to use as a backdrop for a stylist.

Walking back to her studio, although I didn’t find any location suitable for additional flash photography, I decided to go with some classic headshots on the steps of an old theater. Once again, I found the location was working really well with her vibe.

Thanks so much for viewing!

David Giral is a published Montreal/Toronto based editorial and commercial professional photographer specialized in architecture, interiors, portrait and travel photography.

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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright David Giral (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without permission from David Giral.