Specular Highlights

In answering a recent e-mail, a question came back, "what's a specular highlight?" Good question. Here goes a shot at explaining highlights.

The "highlights" of an area should contain detail. For example, when using the Color Sampler Tool to select a highlight, you'll want to select a "white" area that has some detail to it. You'll want to stay away from the bright parts of metallic objects, light sources, or reflections. These areas are known as "specular highlights" and do not contain detail.

Thus, when using a Curves adjustment to re-map black and white, stay away from the specular highlights when choosing your white point.

Enjoy.