How to add highlights on a product photo?

Question

Hello graphicdesign StackExchange community!

I am trying to retouch my image (on the left) on Photoshop to replicate as close to the reference image on the right, but I am not able to create the white highlights.

I tried using the dodge or burn tool but it doesn't work. Would appreciate if anyone has advice or could share links to tutorials on retouching realistic product images!

Answer 1

This kind of thing is tricky, because there are no district shapes in the image for filters and selections to get hold of, so if you don't already have separate elements for the shapes and details in the image then you are going to be doing some drawing.

In the following rough example image, I have done the following:

• Draw a path that recreates the shape of the main logo and the circle.
• Draw a rough shape around the top of the object where the soft highlight should be, fill it with white, then blur this shape and reduce it's opacity until it looks natural.
• Use the drawn path to mask the highlight area so that is does not run over the embossed logo and circle.
• Use the drawn path again to create a black shape on the top layer.
• Apply an outer emboss effect to this shape to create highlights where they are required and then set the opacity mode of that layer to screen.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

Quite complex job. Fortunately there are sharp edges and no background. Without knowledge of the geometry let's try only something plausible that does not need the redrawing of the fine paths

First make copy into a new layer. There you can emphasize the fine print by the Emboss filter. Quite extreme settings are needed due the low contrast. Note the light direction. It's because the round curve a little seems to be a groove. Do not worry about the heavy patterns outside the disks and the noise in the shadows. They are esily fixed.

The idea is utilize the fact that the Emboss gives the flat areas as 50% grey. This fits perfectly. 50% grey is neutral when we use the filtered layer with blending mode Hard LightSo, change the filtered layer to have Blending mode = Hard light.

Now it's time to cut the outside patterns off. The quick selection tool catches easily the original disks. Invert the selecrion, goto the Emboss layer an press DEL This selection is needed several times. It's useful to save it. Let's call it "Outside"

The outside cleaned and mode Hard Light ON:

The emboss is disturbing hard on the logo and it's totally wrong on the shadow noise. Add a layer mask, paint and slowly spray black into the mask until it seems ok. The mask is extremely fine tool due its undestructive nature. The masked emboss:

The top light can be considered as a glow from outside the disks. For that

• create a new layer "Top Light" with blending mode Hard light
• take the selection "Outside" back
• reduce it to upper half of the image and
• fill with white:

Remove the selection, do the filtering Gaussian Blur to the layer Top Light The white color spreads and you have a highlight, but it's too large. Adjust the opacity, if needed.

Again take the selection "Outside" and delete the white outside the disks. Then add a layer mask. Draw a directed linear gradient to the mask from Black to White. Fine tune by sparying slowly black or white, if needed and you're ready.