Steve Ladner

Steve Ladner is a self-taught photographer based in New York with some rather unique and exciting views of life.

Living and working in France for seven years, Steve developed a super feel for fashion and beauty photography. In the months following his return to New York, he was noticed by others as well. He began gettin editorial, advertising, and catalog assignments for such clients as Harper's Bazaar, GQ, Town & Country, The NY Times Magazine, French Vogue, L'Officiel Magazine, Revlon, Speigels, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sony, Capitol Records, Macy's, Spiegel's, Saks Fifth Avenue, Coach Leather and others.

Steve was recently featured in a show at the Photo District Gallery in Manhattan, and we were able to catch up with him for a brief chat...

DT&G

Glad to be able to catch up and take a look at some of your favorites...

Steve

It's great to be back in New York City -- shooting catalogs, portraiture for record labels, artists, musicians, and private commissions, and digital artwork.
      These are some of my favorites -- not necessarily commissions!

DT&G

Steve, what's the formula? What equipment do you like best, and how did you prepare the photographs for the show?

Steve

I have been shooting a lot of my work now with the Canon D60 digital SLR, which has a great 6.3 megapixel capacity. This allows me to enlarge images as big as 30x40 inches. As iris prints on watercolor paper and they look great.
      I also believe that doing consistently good work in this business requires a love of learning - about our clients and their businesses, about technology, about what's happening in the world and how the communications that are all around us keep changing all the time.

DT&G

I assume you then use a program like Photoshop to do the montage and creative, right?

Steve

That's right, Fred, I use Photoshop 7 to create collages, retouch and experiment with the color values, hue and saturation.
      Photoshop is a wonderful tool, but I like to keep things simple. After a couple of years trying out all the tools and overusing everything, now I focus carefully on the effect I envision, and use just the minimum to create whatever I need.

DT&G

You find the 6.3 megapixels gives you sufficient image depth and resolution?

Steve

Absolutely!
      I like shooting digitally because of the instant control and adjustments I can make, especially when it comes to blending and balancing the ambiant light with any flash (off or on camera).
      I also use the Canon G2 (4 megapixels) which is the nicest and most sophisticated point & shoot camera I've ever seen. I always carry it with me. ItÕs compact and ready to catch elements for my next collage.
      I work on a G4 Mac and print my portfolio on a 1280 Epson printer.

DT&G

Fantastic! Steve, thanks for taking your time, it's been great chatting! We hope to catch up with you again some time -- be sure to let us know when your next big show opens! In the mean time, can we send our readers to your web site to see more samples?

Steve

Thank you! It's great to have my work displayed in the Design Center. I hope your readers enjoy some of my visions. Yes, please visit www.SteveLadner.com -- it's mostly my commercial work, but I think the readers may enjoy the trip!

DT&G

There you have it, folks... Steve Ladner, New York Photographer!

What's cookin' with you?

Send us your creations, or those you happen to discover, for The Gallery. All DTG and Design Center readers love to hear from others in the field and see samples of design, illustration, publishing, signs or other visual communications
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