The Elements of Style [Back Story]

IEEE Spectrum´s art staff and the photographers they hire make it all look magically easy. But in fact, getting many of the photos you see as you leaf through these pages is anything but. Take the photo of Marcia Lee, one of the people we profile in this issue´s Dream Jobs special report. She´s a programmer at the Khan Academy. But because her work serves many young kids who are still learning their reading, writing, and arithmetic, we wanted to give her the air of an old-time schoolteacher in our photo. How exactly do you make that happen?