Remove Glare from Photo

Removing glare from a photo means taking out a bright reflection, here a camera flash bouncing off window glass, and rebuilding what it covered. In this example, a couple celebrates their 50th wedding anniversary at a restaurant window at night. The phone flash hit the glass behind them and left a white starburst, with the photographer's hand reflected in it, touching her silver hair. It is the one photo of the two of them with the cake.

What changed in this photo, and what stayed the same?

• Removed: the white flash burst and its rays in the window, and the reflected hand and phone.
• Rebuilt: the dark night street behind the glass, with the same street lights and parked cars as the rest of the window.
• Restored: the outer edge of her curly hair, which the glare had washed out.
• Kept: both faces, their smiles, her pearls, the cake with the 50 candles and the booth, exactly as in the original photo.

Why does glare next to a face need an editor?

A small glint on a plain wall is easy for any glare remover. This one sits against her hair, so the fill has to match the street lights around it and stop exactly at the hair. The editor rebuilds only the area under the glare and checks the faces against the original. If an app already cleaned up your photo well, keep it; send it to us when the result smeared hair, left a gray haze or changed someone's face.

When can glare not be fully removed?

• When the glare covers most of a face, the hidden features cannot be recovered and would have to be redrawn. We tell you before doing that.
• Whatever was behind the glare and visible nowhere else in the photo, such as a sign in a window, is rebuilt to fit, not brought back.
• A heavily compressed copy from a chat app leaves less to work with than the original file.

What should you send?

The original photo from the phone or camera. If you have a second shot without flash, send it as a reference; it shows what was really behind the glass. A reference is free. If we use what that shot shows behind the glass in the finished image, it counts as a photo to edit too, so 1 more credit.

For glare on eyeglasses, see remove glare from glasses in a photo. More light and color fixes are on photo color correction.

Private: recreated on our own images, not customer photos

The before/after shown here is recreated on images created or licensed for this site — never a real customer's photo. Your upload is seen only by the editor working on it, and the edit comes with free revisions within 14 days of delivery if anything needs adjusting.