How to Remove Glare from Glasses in Lightroom: A Step-by-Step Guide

As a professional portrait photographer, I‘ve encountered the dreaded glasses glare more times than I can count. Whether it‘s from the studio lights, pop-up flash, or a bright window, those annoying bright reflections on glasses can really detract from an otherwise great photo.

Did you know over 60% of American adults wear glasses or contact lenses according to The Vision Council? That means dealing with glare is an extremely common retouching task for portrait photographers and editors.

Luckily, with the non-destructive workflow of Lightroom, we can quickly eliminate distracting glare without altering the original photo. In this in-depth tutorial, I‘ll walk you through two powerful methods for glasses glare removal in Lightroom Classic:

1. Using the Spot Removal Tool
2. Painting with the Adjustment Brush

I‘ll explain the concepts behind each technique and show you the exact steps to achieve the most natural look. You‘ll learn pro tips I‘ve discovered from editing thousands of portraits in Lightroom.

While more extreme cases of glare will still require the advanced tools of Photoshop, you can handle the vast majority of glare situations with just a couple minutes of editing in Lightroom. Let‘s dive in!

What Causes Glasses Glare?

Before we jump into the step-by-step, let‘s talk about why glasses glare happens in the first place. Glare is simply light reflecting off the surface of glasses lenses directly into the camera.

The glasses act like a mirror, so if there‘s a strong light source shining towards the subject at the right angle, you‘ll get a visible "hot spot" on the lenses in the photo. Studio strobes, pop-up flashes, the sun, and bright windows are common culprits.

Preventing glare is always better than fixing it in post. Ideally you want to position your main light slightly to the side and above your subject so it doesn‘t reflect at the camera. An easy trick is to have your subject tilt their chin slightly down and look up at the lens to angle the glasses away from the light.

But in reality, we can‘t always control the lighting, especially when shooting outdoors or in a run-and-gun scenario. That‘s where retouching saves the day! Keep reading to discover my go-to methods for saving portraits from dreaded glasses glare.

Method 1: Remove Glare with the Spot Removal Tool

Lightroom‘s powerful Spot Removal tool is my first line of defense against distracting glasses glare. This handy healing brush quickly paints over blemishes using pixels sampled from elsewhere in the photo.

You‘ll find the Spot Removal tool in the toolbar above the Basic Panel in the Develop Module. The keyboard shortcut is Q. It looks like a little bandage icon.

[Screenshot of Spot Removal icon in toolbar]

The Spot Removal Tool has two modes:

1. Clone (keyboard shortcut S) – This mode simply copies and pastes pixels from one area of the photo to another. It‘s useful for covering up spots surrounded by a consistent color or pattern.

2. Heal (keyboard shortcut H) – The default mode intelligently blends the sampled pixels with the surrounding area for a more seamless match. Heal is usually the best choice for natural-looking glasses glare removal.

To remove glasses glare with the Spot Removal tool:

1. Zoom in on your subject‘s face to at least 1:1 so you can clearly see the glare
2. Select the Spot Removal tool (Q)
3. Make sure you‘re in Heal mode (H)
4. Adjust the Size so the brush is just slightly larger than the glare spot you want to remove
5. Click and drag to paint over the glare spot
6. Lightroom will show a pair of circles – the red one is the area you painted, the green is where it‘s sampling replacement pixels from
7. If you don‘t like the result, simply click and drag the green circle to sample from a different area until you find a good match
8. Fine-tune the Opacity and Feather sliders as needed
9. Repeat the process for any other glare spots and press Done when finished

[Before/after screenshot of glasses glare removed with Spot Removal]

Pro Tip: For best results, sample from an area close to the glare that matches the texture and lighting – a smooth patch of skin often works well. Avoid sampling from areas with hard edges or strong shadows. To see where you painted, check "Show Selected Mask Overlay" at the bottom of the tool panel.

Method 2: Paint Over Glare with the Adjustment Brush

The Spot Removal tool works wonders for small to medium areas of glare, but it falls short if the glare covers a large portion of the lens or crosses over important details like the subject‘s eye. In those cases, we can use Lightroom‘s Adjustment Brush to paint over the glare and selectively adjust the color and exposure to make it blend in.

The Adjustment Brush lives right next door to the Spot Removal tool in the Develop module toolbar. The keyboard shortcut is K. Clicking the Brush icon opens a panel with tons of settings you can paint onto specific parts of your photo. It‘s like dodging and burning on steroids.

[Screenshot of Adjustment Brush panel and settings]

Here‘s how to minimize glasses glare with the Adjustment Brush:

1. Zoom in on the glare area
2. Select the Adjustment Brush (K)
3. In the Brush panel, check "Auto Mask" to keep your adjustments constrained to the glare area
4. Use the Size slider and [ ] bracket keys to adjust your brush to be slightly larger than the glare area
5. Paint over the glare. You‘ll see a pin marker and some overlay lines where you painted
6. Adjust the sliders to minimize the appearance of the glare:

• Temp: Use the white balance Temp slider to neutralize any strong color tints in the glare
• Tint: Fine-tune with the Tint slider if needed
• Exposure: Lower Exposure a bit to darken the glare (-0.5 to -1.5 is often a good range)
• Contrast: Decrease the Contrast (-20 to -50) to help flatten the glare
• Highlights: Lowering Highlights (-50) is very effective for the brightest spots of glare
• Saturation: Desaturate intense colors in the glare with a negative Saturation value (-30 to -60)
• Dehaze: Increase Dehaze (+20 to +35) to reduce haziness

7. Option+click (PC: Alt+click) the pin to see a before/after view of your adjustments
8. If the effect looks too strong, lower the Flow slider to blend the adjustments more subtly
9. Paint over additional glare spots as needed

[Before/after screenshot of glare removed with Adjustment Brush]

Keep in mind there‘s no one-size-fits-all formula for the Adjustment Brush settings. Every photo is different, so you‘ll need to experiment with the sliders to find the right balance.

In general, start by dialing down Exposure, Highlights and Saturation to darken the glare and remove color. The Temp and Tint sliders work well for neutralizing color casts. Adding Contrast, Texture and Dehaze can help sharpen the area and blend it with the natural contours of the face. Once you find a combo that works, save it as a preset to speed up your workflow.

When to Use Photoshop Instead

As powerful as Lightroom‘s glare removal tools are, there are times when you‘ll need the advanced retouching capabilities of Adobe Photoshop. If the glasses glare completely obscures an eye or other important facial feature, the Spot Removal and Adjustment Brush will fall short.

[Example screenshot of glasses glare covering the eye]

For trickier cases like this, my preferred method is to open the photo in Photoshop, make a duplicate layer, then carefully paint on a layer mask to reveal the glare-free areas of the original layer. By zooming in and using a small brush with high hardness, you can meticulously reconstruct the eye and fill it back into place.

[Quick example of removing glare covering the eye in Photoshop]

Still, for speed and efficiency, I always try to eliminate glare as much as possible in Lightroom first. With the Spot Removal tool, Adjustment Brush, and other global settings like Exposure, White Balance and Dehaze, you can get surprisingly great results entirely within Lightroom‘s non-destructive environment.

Putting It All Together

Like many retouching tasks, practice makes perfect when it comes to removing glasses glare in Lightroom. Start with the simple cases where the glare is confined to a small area over a plain part of the skin. Use the Spot Removal Tool in Heal mode and experiment with sampling different areas until you get a convincing patch.

As you progress into tougher cases with larger glare spots or glare crossing facial features, move up to the Adjustment Brush. Dial down Exposure, Highlights and Saturation while leveraging the Temp and Dehaze sliders to blend the glare naturally with the rest of the face.

No matter which tool you use, evaluate your results zoomed in so you can see the effect on pores, eyelashes, and other small details. Even if the glare is completely gone, unnatural blotches or halos will give away the retouching work. The key is finding the sweet spot where the glare is minimized but the underlying skin and facial features still look clean and detailed.

With a bit of practice, these Lightroom techniques will become second nature and you‘ll be able to handle all but the most extreme cases of glasses glare right inside your non-destructive workflow. Fixing glare will become a quick two-minute detour rather than a frustrating roadblock.

[Before/after of final portrait with glare removed]

I challenge you to open some portraits with glasses glare and follow along with the steps outlined here. Pay attention to what works and what doesn‘t. Develop your eye for good sample points and Adjustment Brush settings. Like any skill, glasses glare removal becomes easier the more you practice.

A little effort mastering these techniques will pay off in huge time savings and happier portrait clients. Now go rescue some photos from the dreaded glasses glare monster!