I found this yesterday while messing with photoshop.  It's a spot light effect! 

Filters>render>lighting effects>spotlight

It's freaking awesome!

Original

spotlight (and a background)

neat!

Ooooh wow Brianne - that first photo is amazing but the second one just really stands out

Nice work

Ohhhh! I like it! How does it look in color??

Emmy, I don't Know.....that sounds like a project for tonight, lol.

so cool! 

Wow that's great!  I personally dont like photos to be photoshopped too much, but this effect on BW doesn't look artificial at all!  Thanks for sharing.