How to remove dust and scratches on glassware in Photoshop

Glassware is a popular subject for photographers, whether it’s for commercial product photography or creative still-life compositions. However, one common issue with glassware photography is the presence of dust and scratches on the surface of the glass, which can detract from the overall image quality. It’s also the case when working with highly reflective surfaces.

Fortunately, Adobe Photoshop offers a variety of tools to help photographers remove dust and scratches from their images. One of the most useful tools for this task is the Dust and Scratches filter, which is designed to remove small imperfections from the surface of an image. But simply applying the this filter doesn’t entirely fix the issue. So let’s take a look.

Open the image in Photoshop

The first step is to open the image you want to edit in Photoshop. You can do this by selecting File > Open and browsing for the image on your computer.

Duplicate the layer

To avoid making permanent changes to the original image, it’s a good idea to work on a duplicate layer. To create a duplicate layer, simply right-click on the background layer in the Layers panel and select Duplicate Layer.

Select the Dust and Scratches Filter

Select the duplicated layer and navigate to Filter > Noise > Dust and Scratches. This will open the Dust and Scratches filter dialog box.

Adjust the settings

In the Dust and Scratches dialog box, you’ll see two sliders: Radius and Threshold. The Radius slider controls the size of the area that the filter will blur, while the Threshold slider controls the filter’s sensitivity, I usually leave the threshold at 0.

The key is to find the right balance between removing the dust and scratches without losing too much detail in the image. Start by adjusting the Radius slider until you see a noticeable reduction in the dust and scratches. Then, adjust the Threshold slider until the remaining details look sharp and clear. It may need two attempts on different layers to achieve this.

Apply the filter

Once you’ve found the correct settings, click OK to apply the filter. You should see a significant improvement in the appearance of the glassware in your image. However, it may make the whole image a touch blurry.

Use the Brush Tool to touch up

So we need to add a layer mask and invert it (Ctrl +I on Wins, or Cmd +I on Mac) so that the layer mask is black. Now with a small soft white brush paint over the dust and scratches to see them vanish. Remember we may need to add a secondary stronger filter for stubborn marks. You can always resort to the Healing brush if necessary, but I often find it’s not required.

Save your image

Finally, once you’re happy with the edits, save your image by selecting File > Save or File > Save As.

Check out the before and after:

In conclusion, removing dust and scratches from glassware in Photoshop is a simple process that can greatly improve the overall quality of your images. By using the Dust and Scratches filter and the Brush tool, you can quickly and effectively remove imperfections from your glassware photos.