How to Remove Glare When Scanning Old Photos
That white blown-out spot in the middle of a scanned photo is a reflection — light bouncing straight off glossy paper or glass back into the lens. You can fight it with lighting, but the reliable fix is to shoot the same photo from a few angles and let the app keep only the parts that aren't reflecting.
Why glare happens
A glossy print or a framed photo behind glass acts like a mirror. When your light source and your camera are on the same side, some of that light reflects straight back into the lens as a bright hotspot. Matte prints scatter light and barely glare; glossy ones and glass are the worst offenders.
Moving the light helps, but a single shot can only ever capture one reflection geometry — so some angle almost always flares.
Remove glare with a guided glare pass
- Start the guided glare capture on a glossy or framed print.
- Follow the on-screen prompts to move through a few angles — the reflection sits in a different place in each shot.
- Reveela merges the frames, keeping the glare-free part of each, and outputs one clean image with the hotspot gone.
- Prefer to try lighting first? Angle a soft, indirect light so it doesn't bounce back at the lens, or step to one side and let auto-straighten square the result.
For framed photos you can't remove from the glass, the multi-angle pass is the move — it's built for exactly the reflection that a single straight-on shot can't avoid.
Frequently asked questions
Can you remove glare that's already in a photo I took?
A hotspot that blew out to pure white has no detail left to recover in that spot. That's why the guided pass captures multiple angles up front — so the detail under the glare is kept from the angles where it isn't reflecting.
Do I have to take the photo out of the frame?
No. The multi-angle merge is designed for prints behind glass, where you can't get rid of the reflective surface.
Why not just move a lamp?
Repositioning light reduces glare but rarely kills it on glossy paper or glass. Merging a few angles removes what lighting alone leaves behind.