How to Remove Glare on Eyeglasses in Photos

By Tom Becker

Eyeglasses, while fashionable, can prove especially difficult to photograph.
i Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images

Digital photography offers a variety of advantages, including the ability to carefully retouch photos with software at home. Of the many common imperfections in photos, especially in flash photography, glare from eyeglasses is prevalent. Glare from eyeglasses can ruin any photo, giving it a homemade, amateur look. Thanks to the development of user-friendly graphics software, you can carefully remove or diminish the glare from the photo, leaving a clearer, more professional-looking image.

Levels of glare

Open the photo you wish to edit with the photo editing software of your choice.

Click on the "Levels" button to create a new layer above the background image with adjustable levels.

Create a mask over the new layer.

Select the "Fill" tool from the toolbar and select black from the color palette.

Click the "Fill" tool over the mask layer to fill the mask in with black.

Select the "Brush" tool and select white from the color palette.

Paint in the lenses of the eyeglasses in the mask layer with white. This will ensure any level changes you make only apply to the lenses and not the rest of the image.

Highlight the levels layer and move the black slider to the right. This will diminish the highlight from the glare.

Click the "Opacity" slider and drag it left or right until the glare appears reduced to your satisfaction.

Click on the "File" menu, select "Save As," enter a file name and click "Save" to save the altered image file.

Spots of Glare

Open the photo you wish to edit with the photo editing software of your choice.

Create a new layer from the background image. You can alter this layer without altering the original image.

Click on the "Stamp" tool. Some photo editing software refers to this tool as the "Clone Stamp" or "Healing" tool. Whatever their name, these tools duplicate nearby parts of the image to "stamp" or "heal" imperfections.

Look for a spot near the spot of glare that looks the same but without the glare. If the glare is on the eye itself, you can look for a glare-free spot on the opposite eye.

Hold the "Alt" button down and click this spot. You will now use this spot as your source when painting with the "Stamp" tool.

Click the "Stamp" cursor on the glare-covered spot. This will "stamp" over the glare-covered spot with a copy of the non-glare area you selected earlier. Repeat this process one small part at a time until you have stamped the spots of glare with nearby, non-glare areas.

Click on the "File" menu, select "Save As," enter a file name and click "Save" to save the altered image file.

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