Question on Specular reflection behaviour?

Question

Why Specular reflected light will be in bright color(usually white) while other parts of the object are reflecting the perceived color wavelength?

Answer 1

From a physical perspective, this is because:

• specular reflection results from light bouncing off the surface of material
• diffuse reflection results from light bouncing around inside the material

Say you have a piece of red plastic with a smooth surface. The plastic is red because it contains a red dye or pigment. Incoming light that enters the plastic tends to be reflected if red, or absorbed if it is not; this red light bounces around inside the plastic and makes it back out in a more or less random direction (which is why this component is called "diffuse").

On the other hand, some of the incoming light never makes it into the plastic to begin with: it bounces off the surface, instead. Because the surface of the plastic is smooth, its direction is not randomized: it reflects off in a direction based on the mirror reflection angle (which is why it is called "specular"). Since it never hits any of the colorant in the plastic, its color is not changed by selective absorption like the diffuse component; this is why specular reflection is usually white.

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I should add that the above is a highly simplified version of reality: there are plenty of cases that are not covered by these two possibilities. However, they are common enough and generally applicable enough for computer graphics work: the diffuse+specular model can give a good visible approximation to many surfaces, especially when combined with other cheap approximation like bump mapping, etc.

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Edit: a reference in response to Ayappa's comment -- the mechanism that generally gives rise to specular highlights is called Fresnel reflection. It is a classical phenomenon, depending solely on the refractive index of the material.

If the surface of the material is optically smooth (e.g., a high-quality glass window), the Fresnel reflection will produce a true mirror-like image. If the material is only partly smooth (like semigloss paint) you will get a specular highlight, which may be narrow or wide based on how smooth it is at the microscopic level. If the material is completely rough (either at a microscopic level or at some larger scale which is smaller than your image resolution), then the Fresnel reflection becomes effectively diffuse, and cannot be readily distinguished from other forms of diffuse reflection.