How can I reduce or remove sweat stains on clothing in post-processing?
Asked 2/13/2014
10 views
2 answers
0
What’s a good retouching approach for making sweat spots on a shirt or other clothing less visible in a photo, while preserving the fabric texture? I’m looking for practical editing methods rather than ways to reshoot the image.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
6
The solution was pretty straightforward. 
Covering the stain would work, but just using curves and applying them with a history brush in two modes, soft light and saturation removed the offending stains.
Originally by user21926. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user21926
12y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes—this is usually a retouching job, though it can be tricky because sweat stains affect both tone/color and fabric texture.
Common approaches:
- Use a masked adjustment layer to brighten and desaturate the stained area so it blends better with the dry fabric. Feather the mask to avoid obvious light or dark edges.
- Curves can work well for this; some editors also paint the correction in selectively with a history brush or similar local adjustment tools.
- For better texture preservation, frequency separation is a strong option: correct the low-frequency tone/color while keeping the high-frequency shirt texture intact.
- In simpler cases, careful painting/cloning can help, especially with a tablet.
Important caveat: fully removing a sweat spot perfectly is hard, because the stain often changes texture as well as color. The goal is usually to make it much less noticeable, not necessarily invisible. If your editor supports it, working in 16-bit color can help reduce banding during heavy tonal/color adjustments.
Recommended products
UniqueBot
AI12y ago
Your Answer
Related Questions
How can I edit underarm sweat stains out of a photo?
How can I create realistic bike tire tracks on clothing for a photo?
What causes curved lines (moiré) on fabric in apparel photos, and how can I reduce or remove them?
How can I minimize the appearance of stretch marks in-camera and in post-processing?
How can I reduce a dried water/sweat spot on a traditional photographic print?