Fix It: how to remove light glare from photo - Quick fixes

The best way to remove light glare from a photo isn't in Photoshop—it's to stop it from happening in the first place. Getting it right in-camera by adjusting your angle, using a filter, or softening your light will always give you a cleaner, more professional image with far less editing work.

Getting It Right: Preventing Glare Before the Shot

You've heard it before: "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." In photography, that saying is gospel. While our editing software is more powerful than ever, nothing beats capturing a great photo from the get-go.

Fixing glare at the source saves a massive amount of time and frustration later on. It also preserves the original quality and detail of your image. This isn't about complicated techniques; it's about making a few smart, deliberate adjustments before you ever press the shutter.

Master Your Shooting Angle

The quickest, cheapest way to eliminate glare? Move your feet. Glare is a game of angles. Light hits a surface and bounces into your lens at a predictable angle, so a small shift in your position can make a huge difference.

If you’re shooting a framed print behind glass, standing dead-center is a recipe for capturing the reflection of your light source. Just by stepping a little to the side or raising your camera slightly, you can redirect that reflection completely out of the shot. Always experiment with your position first.

Harness the Power of a Polarizing Filter

For anyone serious about controlling reflections, a circular polarizing filter (CPL) is non-negotiable. This little piece of glass is like magic for cutting glare on surfaces like water, glass, and even shiny leaves.

These filters work by blocking the scattered, polarized light that causes most of the glare we see. It’s no wonder the global market for polarizing filters hit around USD 1.2 billion in 2023; they are fundamental tools. A good CPL doesn't just cut reflections—it also deepens blue skies and boosts color saturation.

Using one is simple. Screw it onto your lens, and then rotate the front ring while looking through your viewfinder. You'll literally see the glare vanish as you turn it.

As the infographic shows, combining a good angle with a polarizing filter and soft light is the ultimate strategy for clean, professional shots.

Diffuse Your Light Source for Softer Results

Harsh, direct light is glare’s best friend. A small, intense light source creates those sharp, ugly hotspots we all hate. The solution is diffusion—making your light source bigger and softer in relation to your subject.

You don't need a high-end studio to do this. Everyday items can work wonders:

• Reflectors: Bounce your light off a large white foam board to create a broad, soft light source.

• Diffuser Panels: Place a simple translucent fabric or a shoot-through umbrella between your light and the subject. This scatters the light, instantly softening it.

• Natural Light: An overcast day is a photographer's dream. The cloud cover acts as a giant, free softbox, creating beautiful, even light that's perfect for minimizing reflections.

Softening your light turns distracting glare into flattering highlights that add shape and dimension. For a deeper dive into lighting setups, you can find more tips in our guide to the best lighting for product photography.

Here's a quick cheat sheet for these on-set techniques.

Glare Prevention Techniques At a Glance

Mastering these simple, proactive steps on set will dramatically improve the quality of your images and make your post-processing workflow faster and more enjoyable.

Making Quick Fixes to Minor Photo Glare

Even with the most careful setup, a small, distracting glare can sometimes sneak into an otherwise fantastic shot. The good news is you don’t always need to dive deep into Photoshop to fix it. For most minor issues, a few quick moves in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw will do the trick.

Think of these as your first-aid techniques. They’re your go-to for speed and efficiency and often all you need to remove light glare from a photo without getting tangled in a complex workflow.

The Easiest Fix: A Strategic Crop

Before you even think about touching an adjustment slider, ask yourself: can I just crop it out? It sounds almost too simple, but it’s a step people often overlook in their haste to start editing.

If a hotspot is hanging out near the edge of the frame and isn't crucial to the composition, the Crop Tool is your best friend. Cropping is a clean, non-destructive way to recompose your shot and make the problem vanish. A stray reflection in the corner of a product photo, for instance, can often be trimmed away without anyone ever knowing it was there.

Using Global Adjustments for Subtle Glare

What about glare that’s more widespread, like a hazy wash of light across your product? For this, start with your global adjustment sliders. These tools impact the entire image, so they’re most effective when the glare isn't completely blown out.

Your main players here are the Highlights and Whites sliders in Lightroom or Camera Raw’s Basic panel.

• Highlights: This slider zeroes in on the brighter parts of your photo, leaving the absolute brightest points alone. You'd be surprised how much detail you can recover in mildly overexposed areas just by pulling this slider down.

• Whites: This slider sets the white point for the entire image. If you have areas where the glare is so intense that all detail is lost (what we call "clipping"), pulling this down can help tame them.

Pro Tip: For surgical precision, hold the Alt key (Windows) or Option key (Mac) while dragging the Highlights or Whites slider. This shows you a clipping mask, highlighting exactly which pixels are blown out. Adjust the slider until only the tiny, essential specular highlights remain clipped.

Targeting Glare with Local Adjustments

Sometimes a global edit just won’t cut it because it dulls down parts of the image you want to keep bright. This is where you get specific. Local adjustment tools give you the power to apply edits only to the areas you select. This is by far the best way to handle isolated hotspots on a product or even on a model's skin.

The go-to tools for this job are the Adjustment Brush, Radial Filter, and Linear Gradient.

Here’s a typical workflow using the brush:

1. Grab the Adjustment Brush.

2. Start with subtle settings. Nudge the Exposure, Highlights, and Whites down just a bit. Sometimes, a slight drop in the Dehaze slider can also work wonders to cut through the fogginess of glare.

3. Gently paint over the affected area. The goal is to blend the fix seamlessly, not to create a dark, noticeable splotch.

For perfectly round reflections, like you'd get on a watch face or a shiny button, the Radial Filter is often a much faster and cleaner option. Just draw a circle over the glare, invert the mask so your changes apply inside the circle, and then fine-tune the sliders until it looks natural.

Taking on Tough Glare in Adobe Photoshop

When the quick fixes in Lightroom just aren't cutting it, it's time to bring in the big guns: Adobe Photoshop. This is where you move from simple adjustments to pixel-level surgery, reconstructing parts of your photo that have been completely obliterated by harsh light. It’s the difference between a salvaged shot and a truly professional one.

Think about those really tricky situations—the blinding glare on a pair of eyeglasses, a product label that’s impossible to read, or shiny hotspots on skin in a portrait. Mastering these Photoshop techniques will give you the confidence to tackle even the most challenging glare problems.

Making Seamless Repairs with the Clone Stamp and Healing Brush

At the heart of manual glare removal are two workhorse tools: the Clone Stamp and the Healing Brush. They seem similar, but they operate very differently, and knowing which one to grab is half the battle.

The Clone Stamp Tool is quite literal. It copies pixels from one area and pastes them directly onto another. This direct replication is perfect when you need to rebuild areas with sharp edges or defined patterns, where you can't afford any softness or blending.

On the other hand, the Spot Healing Brush and Healing Brush Tool are much smarter. They analyze the texture, color, and brightness of a source area and then intelligently blend those characteristics into the target spot, matching it to its new surroundings. This makes them ideal for organic surfaces like skin, textiles, or other places where a seamless, natural-looking blend is the top priority.

The Art of Choosing a Source Point

Your success with either tool hinges almost entirely on picking the right source point. The goal is to find a clean area that mirrors the light, color, and texture of the spot you’re trying to fix.

Here’s my approach:

• Match the Light: Never sample from a dark, shadowy area to fix a bright highlight. Look for a nearby spot with almost identical lighting conditions.

• Line Up Textures: If you're working on a fabric weave or another pattern, hold down the Alt/Option key to set your source point, then carefully align the pattern before you start painting over the glare.

• Sample Constantly: Don’t just click once and drag the brush all over the place. That's a surefire way to create a repetitive, fake-looking patch. Instead, get in the habit of constantly resampling from different spots around the glare to build a much more believable and organic repair.

Pro Tip: Always do this kind of reconstructive work on a fresh, blank layer. Just set the tool's sample setting in the top options bar to "Current & Below." This is a non-destructive workflow, meaning you can easily erase any mistakes or dial back the layer's opacity without ever damaging your original image.

Using Frequency Separation for Flawless Skin and Surfaces

For stubborn glare on skin or other smooth-yet-textured surfaces, Frequency Separation is the high-end technique the pros use. It sounds intimidating, but the concept is actually pretty straightforward. You split your image into two separate layers: one that holds all the color and tone (the "Low Frequency" layer) and another that holds all the fine details and texture (the "High Frequency" layer).

This separation is a game-changer. It lets you remove light glare from a photo by painting over the harsh light on the color layer with a soft brush, effectively smoothing out the hotspot without smudging the delicate skin pores or fabric details on the texture layer.

The original texture from the "High" layer remains perfectly preserved. This is the secret behind so much high-end portrait and product retouching, as it fixes lighting issues while keeping the subject looking completely natural.

Blending Exposures with Layer Masks

Sometimes, the best fix happens in-camera. In a controlled studio setting, the most foolproof way to kill severe glare is to shoot for a composite. This means taking two or more shots of the exact same scene, but for each shot, you adjust your light or polarizer to move the glare to a different spot.

Once you have your images, putting them together in Photoshop is easy.

1. Stack all the images as layers within a single document.

2. Put the "cleanest" version of the area you want to fix on the very top layer.

3. Add a black layer mask to that top layer, which will hide it from view.

4. Now, grab a soft, white brush. Simply paint over the glared area on the mask. This reveals the clean, glare-free portion from your top layer, blending it perfectly into the image below.

This method delivers flawless results because you aren't faking pixels—you're just combining the best parts of several real photos. It's the ultimate technique for getting commercial-quality shots of highly reflective products like jewelry, watches, or electronics, ensuring every inch of the item looks perfect.

Don't have access to a desktop? No problem. You can still salvage a great shot from distracting glare using just your phone. The editing apps available today are surprisingly powerful, giving you the tools to make quick fixes right before you post or send an image off to a client.

Let's be real, almost everyone has a high-powered camera in their pocket. With over 290 million smartphone users in the U.S., the demand for easy-to-use, effective editing tools has never been higher. This trend is even reflected in the global market for camera glare suppression, which hit an estimated USD 1.28 billion in 2024. You can explore more data on this expanding market to see just how seriously developers are taking this.

Quick Fixes in Snapseed

Google's Snapseed is a fantastic free tool that punches way above its weight. It's my first stop for quick, on-the-fly edits, and it has a couple of features that are perfect for dealing with glare.

The Healing tool is your best friend for small, isolated reflections. Just zoom in on the shiny spot, tap or brush over it, and Snapseed works its magic. It intelligently samples the surrounding area to patch the glare, making it disappear in seconds. It’s perfect for those tiny, distracting hotspots.

For larger, softer areas of brightness, I turn to the Selective tool. Tap on the hotspot to add a control point. From there, you can pinch to adjust the size of the area you’re affecting. Swipe up or down to select an adjustment (like Brightness) and then left or right to dial it back. It gives you precise control without impacting the rest of the image.

Pro Tip: Instead of one drastic brightness adjustment with the Selective tool, try a more subtle approach. Make a small brightness reduction, then add another control point nearby and slightly lower the contrast. This two-step process almost always looks more natural.

Precision Editing with Lightroom Mobile

When I need more advanced control, I open up Adobe Lightroom Mobile. The free version is incredibly capable, but the real power for fixing glare lies in its masking features, which come with a subscription.

The Masking tool is where you'll want to live. You can use the Brush to paint directly over the glare, creating a precise selection that you can adjust independently from the rest of the photo.

Here’s my typical workflow for a stubborn glare spot in Lightroom Mobile:

• Open the Masking panel and select the Brush tool.

• Carefully paint over the glare. Don't forget to adjust the brush size and feather for a soft, blended edge.

• Once the mask is active, head straight for the Highlights slider and pull it way down. This usually does most of the heavy lifting.

• Next, I’ll gently nudge the Exposure and Whites down until the area blends seamlessly.

• For a final touch, a tiny dip in the Dehaze slider can bring back some of the color and detail that the glare washed out.

AI-Assisted Edits in PhotoDirector

If you're short on time or just want the app to do the work for you, check out an AI-driven editor like PhotoDirector. While it doesn't have a magic "remove glare" button, its AI object removal tools are incredibly good at this exact task.

These tools work a lot like Photoshop's Content-Aware Fill. You simply highlight the glare, and the app's AI analyzes the surrounding pixels to rebuild the area from scratch. This is a massive time-saver, especially if the glare is on a complex pattern or textured background where manual cloning would be a nightmare. As mobile AI gets smarter, these one-tap solutions will make it even easier to remove light glare from a photo without breaking a sweat.

Using AI Tools for Effortless Glare Removal

Manual Photoshop techniques are incredibly powerful, but let’s be honest—they can be a real time-sink and require a ton of expertise. This is where AI is completely changing the game. Modern AI tools don't just crudely copy-paste pixels; they actually understand the context of an image. This allows them to rebuild entire sections of a photo, tackling nightmare-level glare in just a few clicks.

This push toward AI-driven editing is all about efficiency. It mirrors what's happening in the hardware world, like with anti-reflective lens coatings. In fact, that global market was valued at USD 5.28 billion in 2024, all because everyone wants clearer, glare-free visuals. This parallel evolution in hardware and software shows just how serious the industry is about eliminating glare from every angle.

Photoshop Generative Fill for Complex Glare

Adobe's Generative Fill, powered by its Firefly AI, is an absolute lifesaver for those truly catastrophic glares—the kind that completely obliterate the detail underneath. Instead of spending an hour painstakingly cloning textures, you can just tell the AI to figure it out.

The process feels almost like cheating, it's so simple:

• Grab the Lasso Tool and draw a rough selection around the glare.

• The contextual taskbar will pop up; just click the "Generative Fill" button.

• Don't type anything in the prompt box. Just hit "Generate."

Photoshop instantly analyzes the surrounding area and generates a few different options to seamlessly patch the spot. You can flick through them and pick the one that looks the most convincing. This is a game-changer for glare on patterned fabric, textured backdrops, or any complex surface that would make manual cloning a nightmare. We dive deeper into similar AI workflows in our guide on how to use Photoshop AI for image upscaling.

Dedicated AI Editors Like Luminar Neo

It’s not just about plugins, either. Standalone apps like Luminar Neo are built entirely around AI. They are designed from the ground up to fix common photography issues with as little fuss as possible.

While you won't find a magic "remove glare" button, tools like Enhance AI or Structure AI can intelligently boost contrast and pull detail out of washed-out areas. Their healing and cloning tools are also supercharged with AI, often delivering more natural-looking results with way less effort. These programs are perfect for photographers who want serious editing power without the steep learning curve of Photoshop.

My two cents: The choice between AI and manual really depends on the specific problem. If you have a completely blown-out highlight on a critical part of your product, AI is often faster and more effective. But for a little bit of subtle shine on a model's skin or a minor reflection, the fine-tuned control of a manual healing brush is still king.

Manual vs AI Glare Removal Methods

Deciding whether to go manual or let an AI take the wheel comes down to weighing control against speed. Each method has its place in a professional workflow. This table breaks down the key differences.

In the real world, the most efficient workflow often blends both approaches. I'll frequently use Generative Fill to eliminate the bulk of a huge, distracting glare, then I'll switch over to the Clone Stamp or Healing Brush to finesse the edges and make sure the final result is absolutely perfect. Learning to use these tools together is what separates a good retoucher from a great one.

Common Questions About Removing Photo Glare

Even when you know the rules, some situations just love to break them. We've all been there—a perfect portrait ruined by eyeglass reflections or a great product shot marred by a distracting hotspot. Let's dig into some of the most common glare-related problems I see and the practical ways to solve them.

Can You Remove Glare from Eyeglasses in a Photo?

Absolutely. This is probably one of the most frequent fixes photographers have to make. For a minor reflection where you can still see the person's eye underneath, the fix is usually pretty quick. I'll grab the Clone Stamp or Healing Brush in Photoshop and carefully sample a clean part of the lens nearby to paint over the glare. The trick is to follow the natural curve of the lens.

But what if the glare is a solid white blob completely hiding the eye? That calls for a more robust solution. The classic professional trick is to take a second shot where your subject tilts their head just slightly. This moves the reflection. Later, in Photoshop, you can use layer masks to blend the clear eye from the second photo into the first one. It's a bulletproof technique.

These days, AI can also be a huge help. Photoshop’s Generative Fill is surprisingly good at rebuilding the entire eye area with just a quick selection and a click.

What Is the Best Way to Avoid Glare on Products?

When you're shooting products, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Your entire goal is to create soft, beautiful light that wraps around the item instead of just bouncing off it harshly.

The single most effective thing you can do is use large, diffused light sources. Think softboxes, shooting umbrellas, or even bouncing your light off a big white wall or ceiling. This creates gentle, even lighting that minimizes those sharp, distracting highlights right from the start.

Your camera angle is also a huge factor. I’ve often found that moving my camera just a few inches left or right can make a pesky reflection disappear entirely. And for anything that isn't shiny metal, a circular polarizing filter (CPL) is a game-changer. It’s a filter you screw onto your lens that lets you dial down glare in real-time.

For a deeper dive into lighting and setup, our full guide on how to take professional product photos covers all the bases.

Is There an App that Automatically Removes Glare?

We're not quite at the "one-click magic button" stage yet, but some mobile apps get you surprisingly close. The technology is getting better all the time.

• Adobe Lightroom Mobile: The selective adjustment tools and healing brush are fantastic for manually targeting and toning down glare on your phone.

• Snapseed: A great free option. Its Healing and Selective tools are straightforward and work well for smaller hotspots.

• AI Editors (like PhotoDirector): Many modern editors use AI to identify and remove unwanted elements, which can work great for reflections.

Right now, if you’re looking for the most "automatic" and powerful tool, it’s probably Photoshop’s Generative Fill. It does an incredible job of handling complex glare issues with very little manual work.

How Do You Fix a Photo Washed Out by Sun Glare?

When a photo is blasted by the sun, you're fighting two battles: clipped highlights and a massive loss of contrast. Tackling this requires a few key moves in an editor like Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw.

First, your mission is to rescue detail from those bright, washed-out areas. Pull the Highlights and Whites sliders way down. You'll often be amazed at how much information is still hiding in pixels that look pure white.

Next, it's time to bring back the depth and color. The Dehaze slider is your secret weapon here—it's literally designed to cut through that kind of atmospheric haze and restore contrast. From there, I'll usually push the Blacks slider down to bring back some richness and then fine-tune the overall Exposure. For landscapes, applying these adjustments with a Graduated Filter over just the sky can give you a much more natural and balanced result.

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