Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 Studio Techniques

Reflected Highlights

When you run across an image that contains glass, metal, or other shiny objects, it usually contains extremely bright highlights (known as specular highlights). This usually happens when light reflects directly off one of those very shiny areas, such as the edge of a glass. These extra-bright highlights often look rather flat and lifeless after being adjusted (Figure 16.114). This happens because whenever we adjust an image to perform color correction, or prepare it for printing or multimedia, the brightest areas of the image usually become 3% or 4% gray (instead of white). But if you sharpen those areas, you're going to brighten them and make them pure white. This will make them stand out and look more realistic. So any ...