Textured or glossy paper reflects light directly back at the camera, so the fix is almost always about changing your lighting angle rather than your camera settings — angle the light (or the photo) so reflections fall away from the camera, not toward it.
What you need
- The textured or glossy photo
- A light source you can reposition (a lamp, or move relative to a window)
- Your phone camera
Why textured and glossy paper cause glare
Textured paper (a common older-print finish) and glossy paper both cause the same basic problem: direct reflections. The technique for avoiding both is essentially the same, just more pronounced on glossy paper.
How to digitise without the glare
- Identify where the glare is currently coming from. Take a test shot and look at where the bright reflection sits on the photo — that tells you where your light source is relative to your camera.
- Move your light source to the side, rather than straight-on. Light coming from an angle (roughly 30-45 degrees off the photo) rather than directly in front usually eliminates direct reflection into the camera.
- Alternatively, angle the photo itself slightly rather than the light. If you can’t easily move your light, tilting the photo a small amount while keeping your camera roughly level can achieve the same effect.
- Use diffused, indirect light where possible. Bouncing light off a wall or ceiling, or using an overcast day’s soft outdoor light, reduces harsh direct reflections compared to a single bright point source.
- Take a few test shots and check each on your screen before settling on an angle. Small changes in angle can make a big difference; a couple of test shots is faster than one confident guess that turns out wrong.
- For textured paper specifically, watch for the texture itself catching shadows unevenly. Very textured prints can show their paper texture as tiny shadows across the image; angling light more directly (but still off-axis from the camera) can help minimise this without reintroducing glare.
Check the glare is actually gone
Review the shot at full size and confirm there’s no bright washed-out patch obscuring part of the image, and that the photo’s own texture isn’t creating a distracting shadow pattern.
If glare keeps showing up
If glare persists no matter the angle, try moving the whole setup to a different light source entirely (near a window with indirect daylight, for example) rather than continuing to adjust within the same lighting situation.
Next step
This same lighting principle applies to photos behind plastic album sleeves too — see Digitise photos from an old photo album without removing them from the pages.
Sources and date checked
General photography technique based on standard advice for reducing glare on reflective surfaces; not tied to a specific product. Checked 22 September 2026.