Add a shadow to a photo

A subject cut out and placed on white without a shadow floats. The eye reads the missing shadow before it reads anything else, and the result looks like a sticker on a page. A shadow that is too strong or falls the wrong way is worse. The two that do most of the work are here, each with the controls that matter for it.

Start with the contact shadow for anything that stands on a surface: lower its width until the dark part sits just under the base, and raise the softness until the edge disappears. Use the drop shadow when the subject should look lifted: a small distance, a large softness and a low opacity read as natural; a large distance reads as a design choice.

1. Cast shadows that stretch across the floor and reflections are not drawn yet.
2. The shadow does not know the light in the original photo; match the angle by eye.

What is the difference between a contact shadow and a drop shadow?

A contact shadow is the soft dark ellipse where an object meets the surface it stands on; it is what makes a product on white look placed rather than pasted. A drop shadow is the subject's own silhouette, offset and blurred, as if it were lifted off the page with a light above it. Product listings usually want contact; cut-out portraits on a coloured page usually want drop.

Is the shadow stretched from the preview?

No. The shadow is stored as numbers — angle, distance, softness, opacity, colour, width — and drawn again at the photo's full size when you save, so a 4000-pixel file gets a 4000-pixel shadow.

Can I keep the shadow in a transparent PNG?

Yes, with 'Keep the shadow in a transparent PNG'. It is off by default, because a shadow on a transparent file lands on whatever the file is later placed on, which is usually not what was intended.

Why is there no shadow option on the passport page?

Because a passport or exam photo must have no shadow on the background. On that page, and whenever a form preset is on, the shadow is switched off and the reason is shown.

• Product photo backgroundPure white, centred on a square at the fill a marketplace measures.
• White backgroundPure 255 white behind the subject, for listings, profiles and forms.
• Change backgroundThe subject on a colour, a blur, your own picture or a drawn background.
• Remove backgroundThe background off any picture, as a full-size transparent PNG.