adding shine to a faux finish furniture

[martianspy]

I am trying to make unfinished furniture look finished
Here is an example..
http://snipurl.com/jilo
the three "finishes" along the top of the photo were created using layer settings like "multiply"
what I am missing to make it look real is a "shine". They just dont look stained. Real stained furniture has a bit of sheen to it.
Any suggestions on how to add a bit of shine to my faux finishes?

[The Repro Kid]

Find the natural highlights already present on the edges of the furniture and play these highlights up. The sheen can be suggested not by making all areas of the furniture shiny, but instead by making the existing highlights contrast more and/or shine brighter than they already are. You could also add some spectral highlights that don't exist manually with a brush or by making some careful selections.

[martianspy]

thanks..what would you suggest for bringing up the highlights? I tried image/adjust/shadows/highlights (which I've never even seen before..is that new?) but I didnt have much luck.

[grnofslt]

One thing you might try (if you use a Wacom Tablet) is to lightly brush (on a layer of their own) the highlight areas you wish to include. This isn't a fast way to do it, but it is one way. Cut yoru opacity down to 10% and make a couple passes someplace and see how it looks. Experiment with the layer blending modes. If it doesn't work out, just trash the layer you had created for the shine.

[The Repro Kid]

Cool. grnofslt is right about the wacom. They are pressure sensitive so you can get nice fades at the ends of the highlight.

Here is a quick example I made. I didn't use my wacom, but this is just a quick example -- not a full blown, serious artwork.

I used the burn tool with a small soft brush. Doge and burn are a set of tools that are supposed to mimic old darkroom techniques, they come as brush tools. I used the mid-tone setting at 50% (the highlight setting was too harsh) and made the lines mechanically straight by clicking with brush once at the start of the line, then holding shift, and making a second click at the end of the highlight line. Some I went over a few times. The lines need to be straight or it wont look like a manufactured item. On the knob (which was the best area of this quick example) I just freehanded it. The thing with dodge burn tools is they make the object overexposed (burn) or underexposed (dodge) so you can lighten and darken areas selectively while maintaining original color and texture. There is nothing unsound about painting white lines on an above layer and turning it to multiply or screen or something like that, but for my money, the dodge and burn tools can look way more realistic when handled well.

[martianspy]

Thanks, that looks pretty damn good.
I have a tablet at home, but not at work, maybe i can get them to spring for one.

[The Repro Kid]

Cool. I did my example with the mouse, though, not with my wacom.