This is the first in the “Make it Pop” series, meant to help further your post-production skills, adding subtle elements to your photography with digital tools such as Adobe Photoshop.

This article tackles the Headshot. Often times the professional headshot is shown up against a sea of others. I mean, heck, that’s the point, right? You are being directly compared against others, and if several candidates meet the same basic requirements, a well-produced headshot can make the difference.

There are dozens of techniques that photographers regularly use to set their shots apart from others, and to achieve their own “look”. One important technique has to do with highlights. It’s always a good idea to bring out the client’s best features, and pulling out key highlights in the eyes, hair, teeth, etc… can be a subtle yet effective way to do this.

Bringing Out Highlights in Photoshop

1. With your image open in Photoshop, duplicate the main (background) layer.

This step is optional, however, it’s always a good idea to duplicate your layer if you’re going to be doing any destructive editing.

2. Choose the Dodge tool from the tools panel and edit your brush, range, and exposure settings. You can work with the settings below or use other brush sizes or exposures. Whatever you feel more comfortable with.



3. Start working into the hair highlights. First with the range set to Midtones, and then to Highlights. Work slowly until you have pulled all of the important highlights out (highly subjective).



4. Move to the eye highlights. It’s often best to set your range to Highlights for these areas. Pull out the whites and also a bit of the colored area.



5. You can optionally use the Sponge tool (same tool family as dodge/burn) to add a small amount of extra saturation to the eyes (and/or lips).
6. Look for other areas to bring out highlights. Sometimes teeth, or even clothing can be emphasized. Regardless of what anyone might tell you, it’s all a very subjective area, so go ahead and experiment with it to make it your own.

Above is a crop of the headshot after the subtle highlight cues were brought out.

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