Highlights Attract

Not long ago I read an article by a very polished photographer from Denmark, Thornsten Overgaard, who noted that a peculiar detail that makes paintings so unreal and attractive is the exaggerated brightness in the highlights.
This idea works well when applied to contrasty photos, and most photographers apply the technique whether they know it or not. When adding a curve's or levels adjustment we make the light spots brighter, and the dark spots darker. The same can also be done selectively using the dodge tool to brighten highlights, and burn tool to darken shadows.

For example, take this editorial photo from Jedroot.com (My favorite website for inspiration!)



There's black, there's white, and some popping color in between. And that's no accident. Not all photos need to be this way, but when the subject in the photo needs to stand out, this technique helps to draw attention to it by eliminating unnecesary details in the extreme light and dark areas.

So going back to Thornsten's point, I had some fun time creating a few designs consisting of only the highlights from a photo. The final image gives an idea of what the object is without showing anything but the brightest spots. Check out the examples, and the explanation of how to achieve the effect below:





ENQ is an idea for a friend making a production company, more to come about that in the coming weeks!

So for the actual process to achieve this effect, it only takes a few simple steps in photoshop.

First choose a photo that has distinct highlights, such as a portrait shot against the sun, where there is a fine bright line around the contours. Then follow the steps in this tutorial to get your cool silhouette.




If you can't find any thin highlights its ok, you can also use the technique on bigger highlight areas, you will just need to clean up more junk in the surroundings when you're done. Also, adding some color to the final image can help achieve your desired look. Here is a quick one I did for a friend:



Feel free to post any questions, hope you liked the tutorial!

TT