De-light Photoshop Action

Check the demo video in the second slide ->

A photoshop action to remove lighting from a photo or texture. 

Load it through the Photoshop Actions window.

1- Make sure to name the target layer: delight

2- If you want it to affect only some part of the image, you must keep only the pixels you want processed and erase the rest from the layer. Otherwise other parts of the image will contaminate the colors of the part you want to delight.

3- Run the script.

4- After the action runs you can go to the high pass smart layer and double click it to change the radius value while seeing the results interactively. There is also a layer called "Restore Color". This helps keep the original color after delighting. You can tweak its opacity as desired. There is a layer called "Restore Dark Spots". Double click it to open the blending options and adjust the "Blend If" section slider as seen in the demo video to allow certain dark values from the original image to be added back to the final result and mixed with the overall delighting. This helps regain any washed out dark details in some materials.