Guide · Scanning
How to remove glare when scanning photos
Glossy prints reflect light like a mirror. Here's how to arrange your light and camera to eliminate glare and hotspots — no special gear required.
Glare is the most common reason a phone scan looks worse than the print in your hand. The fix is all about the angle and softness of your light — get that right and reflections disappear.
Why glossy prints glare
A glossy surface acts like a mirror: wherever your light source sits, it reflects straight back. If that reflection lands in your camera lens, you get a bright white hotspot that wipes out the photo underneath. Matte prints glare less, but the principle is the same.
The anti-glare setup
- Move light to the sides. Place two lamps (or a window) at 45° angles to the print, one on each side. This lights the photo evenly without reflecting into the lens.
- Soften the light. Bounce lamps off a white wall or ceiling, or diffuse them through paper or a curtain. Soft light produces no sharp hotspots.
- Kill overhead and behind-camera light. A single bulb above you, or a lamp behind the phone, is the usual culprit. Turn it off.
- Tilt slightly. If a faint reflection remains, angle the print or camera a few degrees so the reflection falls away from the lens — then correct the perspective afterward.
- Flash off, always. Phone flash is the worst offender for glare.
Test before you commit
Take one test shot and zoom in. If you see a bright patch, adjust the light angle and reshoot. Thirty seconds of tweaking saves a whole batch of glary scans.
After a clean capture
With glare gone, your scan is ready to restore, colorize, and animate. For any remaining unevenness, the photo enhancer evens out tone automatically.
