[Terance Caesar]

First of all I'm new here, so hallo to all and I like to say that this is a cool board with a lot talented artists. My question is how do you exactly (step by step, I am a moron) get really bright, shiny, blinding highlights like in the example of the tutorial and the image in the gallery titled tempest ( the one with the lightening and glowing sword). I have access to Photoshop 5LE and 6.0, from other posts I read, it seems to be harder to do with 6.0 cause color dodge works differently or something.

[Anthony]

It's all about the contrast of values you setup around the highlight. If the whole image is a shade off white, and the highlight's white, then the highlight's not very impressive. And it's not just the near colors, it's also partially the overall color light/dark balance. A highlight on a summer day's less impressive than in the dark dungeon.

[dr . bang]

a while ago, i finally found a solution to get the color dodge in PS 6 to work like it used tobe.

So in order for this to happen, you fill the layer you're about to dodge with completely BLACK, then let the color dodge abuse begin

[Terance Caesar]

Thanks for the response.
So if I play around with the curve and make it darker the highlights will stand out more.
Makes perfect sense, but how do I get the glow effect. Airbrush set to lighten or color burn.

[Anthony]

I don't recommend messing with the curve values or the dodge/burn tools until you understand contrast and values. A soft glow is generally done with a very soft airbrush just a bit larger than the solid hot spot color.