Hair highlights

[i.ilievski]

HI ... I'm just trying to learn how to achieve this hair highlight effect... I know that there are many ways... But just want to know what is the best way....

Thank you...

[mistermonday]

Try duplicating the original to a new layer and changing the blend mode to Color Burn or Linear burn. You may need to reduce the opacity, depending on the tone of the image. You can also add a level adjustment layer to tweak the contrast.
Others may come up with a better technique.
Regards, Murray

[Littlecoo]

or change the image mode to cmyk, create and play around with 'curves' adjustment layer, isolating the hair on the layer's mask.

[i.ilievski]

Thanks guys.. I use those or similar techniques all the time, but some times they just don't work... for example if the hair is too bright ...

I'm telling you this cause I have a lot of difficulties with hair highlits... and it's too much time consuming....

Anyway I'll try experiment a little bit more especially with the convert to CMYK method (never gave it a try)...

Thank you again... If any one have any other advice, I'm open to suggestions

[Mig]

The really easy way is to just paint the hair in and use blend modes. You'll have a lot of control doing it that way.

For example, open a pic of someone's hair in ps, then sample its colour - if you wanted something which would be somewhat similar to the base colour of the person's hair, or, pick a totally different colour if you wanted something really bizarre-looking.

Add a new empty layer on top of all and change its blend mode to something like soft light, colour burn, or whatever it is you wanted to try (because you can always change its blend mode as you go along), then begin painting on the new layer. Change the blend mode to see what different blend modes will do with the paint you applied, and if you don't like the results, change the blend mode, and play with the opacity of the layer, or, delete the layer and start over again.

It's quick and easy.

Mig