An Effective Technique To
Remove Shine From The Skin
With Photoshop

Video of this technique is at the bottom of the page.

Remove Shine

Have you ever had an otherwise great photo of someone but they have some annoying shine on their forehead or cheeks or nose or chin? It can wreck an otherwise great picture and it can be difficult to eliminate.

It happens if someone is nervous in front of the camera and starts to sweat or the lighting is harsh.

This technique is particularly suited to a Wacom product (Graphire, Bamboo or Intuos) because of the pressure sensitivity of the tablets. It is best to set the primary Photoshop tool in this technique (Clone Tool) to change opacity with pressure. This will provide you with precise control as you remove the shiny parts of your chosen photograph.

Here is how to get rid of the shine using Photoshop. (This will also work with Photoshop Elements).

Take this shot, for example. Gilles has some unwanted highlights on his nose and forehead. Here is how you get rid of those unwanted highlights.

1. Load your picture in Photoshop.

2. Create a new layer either by click the new layer icon in the Layers Palette or by selecting Layer>New Layer in the menu bar.

3. Change the Blending Mode to Darken.

   

   Layers palette with the
   Blending Mode set to Darken.

4. Select either the Healing Brush Tool or the Clone Tool and make sure that Use All Layers is selected. I prefer the Clone Tool because it can be set for pen pressure with a Wacom tablet whereas the Healing Brush Tool is not pressure sensitive. I also noticed better results with the Clone Tool.

5. Alt/Option Click on a dark part of the picture and then move your brush over the area you would like to replace. Start painting away the shine. If you are using a Wacom Tablet (and you really should be, you know) set the brush to change the opacity with pressure.

   Note:
   If you are not sure how to set the pressure sensitive settings with a Wacom tablet, then Click Here to go to the Brush Settings page. You can either review the text on the page or watch a video which will explain the procedure.

6. When you are satisfied with your work you can fine tune your finished product by adjusting the Layer Opacity.

These are the pictures of Gilles before and after removing highlights.

Another example of the same technique.