# Remove shadow from photo — and glare > To remove a shadow from a photo, open it in Kenerate's Edit Studio, choose AI Edit and describe the shadow — “remove the shadow of my phone across the paper, keep everything else the same” — or paint over a small shadow with Magic Eraser. New accounts get 25 free credits. URL: https://kenerateai.com/remove-shadow-from-photo Publisher: Kenerate AI (https://kenerateai.com) Last updated: 26 September 2026 ## Key facts - AI Edit: Qwen Image 2.0, describe the fix - Magic Eraser: Paint over small shadows - Fixes: Phone, window and face shadows; glasses glare - Free to start: 25 credits on sign-up ## Steps 1. Open the photo in Edit Studio — Upload the photo with the shadow or glare to Kenerate's Edit Studio. 2. Describe the fix with AI Edit — Choose AI Edit and write what to remove, for example: “Remove the dark shadow of the phone across the card. Keep everything else the same.” 3. Or paint over it with Magic Eraser — For a small, clearly separate shadow or reflection, choose Magic Eraser and paint over it. 4. Download — Compare the result with the original, run it again if needed, and download. ## In depth ### A shadow isn't an object A shadow darkens what's underneath without covering it, so removing it means relighting the area, not deleting it. Researchers built the ISTD benchmark (2018) — 1,870 sets of a shadow photo, its shadow mask and the same scene without the shadow — to train models that detect and remove shadows together [1]. ### When the area has to be rebuilt Very dark shadows lose the texture underneath, so the tool has to fill it in. That is inpainting: Bertalmio's 2000 method carried lines in from the edges like an art restorer [2]; PatchMatch (2009), the algorithm behind Photoshop's Content-Aware Fill, copies matching patches from elsewhere in the photo [3][4]; LaMa (2022) uses a network that sees the whole image to fill large areas [5]. ### Why the prompt matters A general image editor like AI Edit can relight or repaint anything, so it needs to be told what to leave alone. Naming the shadow and ending with “keep everything else exactly the same” keeps the change local; Magic Eraser only touches the area you paint. References: [1] Wang, Li & Yang — ST-CGAN and the ISTD shadow dataset (CVPR 2018): https://openaccess.thecvf.com/content_cvpr_2018/papers/Wang_Stacked_Conditional_Generative_CVPR_2018_paper.pdf [2] Bertalmio et al. — Image Inpainting (SIGGRAPH 2000): https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/344779.344972 [3] Barnes et al. — PatchMatch (SIGGRAPH 2009): https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1531326.1531330 [4] Princeton — PatchMatch powers Photoshop's Content-Aware Fill: https://eqn.princeton.edu/2010/06/patchmatch/ [5] Suvorov et al. — LaMa: large-mask inpainting (WACV 2022): https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.07161 ## FAQ Q: How do I remove a shadow from a photo? A: Open the photo in Kenerate's Edit Studio, choose AI Edit and describe the shadow to remove — “remove the shadow of my phone across the paper, keep everything else the same”. For a small shadow, paint over it with Magic Eraser instead. Download the result. Q: Is it free? A: Free to start: new accounts get 25 free credits, and bigger jobs use one-time credit packs that never expire. Q: Can AI remove shadows from faces? A: It can soften or remove harsh shadows, but faces are sensitive — keep the prompt specific (“soften the hard shadow on the left side of the face, keep the face identical”) and compare with the original. Q: How do I remove glare from glasses in a photo? A: Use AI Edit with a prompt like “Remove the white glare reflections from the eyeglass lenses so the eyes are visible. Keep everything else the same.” Q: How do I remove a shadow from a document photo? A: Use AI Edit and ask it to remove the shadow across the page while keeping the text unchanged, then check the words carefully. For scans that must be exact, re-shoot the document in even light. Q: Why does the AI change other parts of the photo? A: Vague prompts give the model room to change things. Name the shadow, say where it is, and end with “Keep everything else exactly the same.” Magic Eraser only changes the area you paint. Q: Can I remove a shadow and then cut out the subject? A: Yes. Fix the shadow in Edit Studio, then use Remove BG in the same studio — or the background remover — to get a transparent PNG. Q: How can I avoid shadows when taking photos? A: Shoot in open shade or near a large window, keep the light behind the camera at an angle, hold the phone higher or use the timer so your hand is out of the light, and add a white card on the shadow side to bounce light in. ## Related pages - Free AI background remover: https://kenerateai.com/free-ai-background-remover - Transparent background maker: https://kenerateai.com/transparent-background-maker - Free PNG maker: https://kenerateai.com/png-maker - White background: https://kenerateai.com/white-background - Remove white background: https://kenerateai.com/remove-white-background - Black background: https://kenerateai.com/black-background - Transparent logo: https://kenerateai.com/remove-background-from-logo - Signature PNG: https://kenerateai.com/remove-background-from-signature - Remove glare: https://kenerateai.com/remove-glare-from-photo - Remove text: https://kenerateai.com/remove-text-from-image - Make an image transparent: https://kenerateai.com/how-to-make-an-image-transparent - Remove background in Canva: https://kenerateai.com/how-to-remove-background-in-canva - Remove background in Photoshop: https://kenerateai.com/how-to-remove-background-in-photoshop - Remove background in GIMP: https://kenerateai.com/how-to-remove-background-in-gimp - Remove background on iPhone: https://kenerateai.com/how-to-remove-background-on-iphone - Remove a person from a photo: https://kenerateai.com/how-to-remove-a-person-from-a-photo - All background remover alternatives: https://kenerateai.com/background-remover-alternatives - remove.bg alternative: https://kenerateai.com/remove-bg-alternative - Photoroom alternative: https://kenerateai.com/photoroom-alternative - Pixelcut alternative: https://kenerateai.com/pixelcut-alternative - Canva BG Remover alternative: https://kenerateai.com/canva-background-remover-alternative - Adobe Express alternative: https://kenerateai.com/adobe-express-background-remover-alternative - erase.bg alternative: https://kenerateai.com/erase-bg-alternative - removal.ai alternative: https://kenerateai.com/removal-ai-alternative - Picsart alternative: https://kenerateai.com/picsart-background-remover-alternative - Pixlr alternative: https://kenerateai.com/pixlr-background-remover-alternative - Clipping Magic alternative: https://kenerateai.com/clipping-magic-alternative - PhotoScissors alternative: https://kenerateai.com/photoscissors-alternative - PicWish alternative: https://kenerateai.com/picwish-alternative - Slazzer alternative: https://kenerateai.com/slazzer-alternative - Fotor alternative: https://kenerateai.com/fotor-background-remover-alternative ## Sources - Kenerate Edit Studio: https://kenerateai.com/app/edit