Have you ever wondered how to add specular highlights to your imagery?

Have tried adding specular highlights to your imagery?

So what are specular highlights? Specular highlights are the bright spots of light that appear on your foods when illuminated, especially foods that naturally have glaze or shine.

Including specular highlights in your imagery can add depth, highlight the texture of the food and add interest.

Strong specular highlights can add a touch of glossiness to the overall image and showcase the subject to grab potential clients attention.

How do you create specular highlights?

When incorporating specular highlights in your imagery you need to be careful you are not over exposing the image as this will loose detail in your pixels.

If the image is over exposed you will see a pure white mark and not a shine where the highlight should be.

Specular highlights are created by using a strong light source angled on the food subject to create an area of brightness.  In the case of these strawberries I had spritzed them with some lemon juice before photographing to help add shine and capture the light.

You will need to play around with the angle of the light so the light bounces on the subject creating the brightness and your camera position and angle to capture them, so there is some moving around to do but it is worth it.

Have fun having a go and let me know how you get on…

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