Pete McArthur, featured in our story on studio photographers, loves to create sets and props so playfully composed and richly colored that people think they must have been created on a computer. His cover illustration, of a meticulously painted model boat was composed entirely in the camera. It is a testimony to McArthur's craft, and evidence of what may be the next big trend in studio work: Creating images so real, people think they are digital.

Creating space is a challenge every studio photographer ultimately must face. Seattle's Amy Andersen and Jonathan Ross knew the time had come two years ago, as they gazed around the tiny windowless studio they had come to call "the bomb shelter."

After spending years building a client base and socking away earnings from ever-larger assignments, Andersen Ross Photography had a hefty sum in the bank, and the husband-and-wife photography team knew they wanted to spend it on a bigger studio. They settled on a few simple requirements.

They wanted to find a studio that was sunny yet cavernous. It had to be fabulous yet affordable, with room to grow...

Traditional product photography has accompanied websites, print brochures and related sales collateral for many years now. With the global reach and 24/7 timeliness of the Internet, new demands are placed on the seller. As e-commerce matures with the ever-expanding Internet, many companies are now looking for new ways to display and sell their products. When it is not possible for a buyer to see or hold a product for purchase, the next best thing to being there live is an interactive digital image which is now commonly called a Virtual Reality (VR) Object or Immersive Image.

A VR Object consists of a series of digital images shot in sequence then authored into an interactive digital file. These sequential shots simulate the rotation or functionality of an object and display different views...

Balancing rates and rights is no easy task for most photographers.

When it comes to the business of image making, many photographers are short-sighted. They focus intently on the creative or logistical challenges of the assignment, but are fuzzy on its financial details. While skimming quickly over the fine print on a purchase order, they fail to realize that the primary goal of negotiating is not to win the immediate assignment. Instead, it is to win the respect of the client with whom a long-term relationship will result in job after job for years to come...

Without ever leaving home, you can do everything from finding a camera, ordering images and processing film to taking photo workshops, encrypting images and creating a storefront.

Even for people using 35mm film, the online world has plenty to offer. It's pretty commonplace now for online photography websites to offer film processing, a place to store images and a way to create and share an online photo album with special effects and personal messages—all for free.

Community-building websites such as Robert Farber's
 Photoworkshop.com offer a wide range of product reviews, discussion boards...

As a factory worker for most of his life, George Ciardi has always had an affinity for the "accidental artistry" of the places where he worked. "It's all this functionality that ends up being beautiful in odd ways," he says. Ciardi took a job as a courier two and a half years ago, but stuck in a car all day, he soon felt "visually frustrated" and missed the rhythm of factory life. That all changed when he began seeing the old buildings he delivered packages to in a different light.

"My job takes me to all these great locations," Ciardi says. "So I started writing down the places that might be promiq sing and going back at night with my camera."

The spooky colors in Ciardi's images are provided by the buildings' own outdoor lighting. The yellowish hues come from sodium vapor lights, while mercury vapor...

Studio: An expansive 12,000-square-foot remodeled lumber mill in an industrial area of San Francisco

Recent subjects: Lexus, Infiity, BMW. "In the technology world, we've done everything from Sony Playstation to Apple to Microsoft."

Best advice to aspiring photographers: "The most difficult thing for a new photographer to do is to find his or her own voice. Imitating other photographers necessarily puts them behind the curve. You need to think and create your own great ideas, and have the technique be the second thing. "When all is said and done and the year's work, or decade's work, is looked back on, the things that rise to the top are the great ideas you had, not the great techniques. That's a very difficult thing for a young photographer to grasp. Most of the time that comes not from a lack of talent, but a fear that their own voice will not be accepted. That's something you have to get over."

Website: rjmuna.com...

Whether you're perusing the 53 dreamlike models and dancers in his latest photo book, The Apparitions, or marveling at the blur of a snarling attack dog in a recent ad he shot for Sony Playstation, there's no denying that R. J. Muna's photos make the pulse quicken. Less clear is how his wispy images gather so much force from such ethereal foundations.

In Muna's latest book, says photographer Owen Edwards, "What Muna wanted to track down wasn't just the spirits that flit through our dreams, both waking and sleeping, but whatever it was that brought them up from the depths."

Throughout his career, says Edwards, "Muna has created photographic versions of these invented glimpses...

As it does once every two years, our editorial focus this issue returns to studio photography. As we researched stories focusing on individuals and the industry, it became clear that these photographers, regardless of their specialty, have one thing in common: They make photos rather than just take them.

The photographers we present in these pages are masters of premeditation with an obsession for detail. From concepts to completion, they use time-tested skills as a foundation for cutting-edge lighting, exposure and post-production techniques. Without exception, they inventively capture their clients' desires on film, and often deliver much, much more.

Our thanks to all the featured photographers (and their staffs) who cheerfully cooperated in presenting their work...

Jeff Schultz, one of Iditarod's two official photographers, will mark his twentieth year chronicling the race when the dog sledding teams leave Anchorage next March. Originally a portrait and wedding photographer, he was swept up in Iditarod fever after shooting a portrait of the charismatic Joe Reddington Sr., a founder of the modern race who passed away last year.

That seed planted in Iditarod's early days has blossomed into an Alaska-focused career for Schultz, who now shoots editorial and corporate assignments and owns the the stock agency Alaska Stock Images at alaskastock.com. Schultz himself regularly shoots outdoor and adventure stock in addition to his annual coverage of Iditarod.

Much has changed since the race first reached Nome in 1973, and since 1981, when Schultz hired a pilot on his own first year on the trail, and "could only afford to fly the trail half way." More teams, more media, and more machinery have turned the Iditarod into...