Remove a background cleanly and the product stops looking like an object in a room. It floats. The shadow is what puts it back on a surface, and most of the work is choosing the right one rather than drawing it well.
Natural shadow
The original shadow from the shoot is kept and cleaned up rather than replaced. It is the most convincing option because it is real, and the cheapest when the shoot was lit for it. It only works if the shadow was actually on the plate.
Drop shadow
A soft shape placed under the product, usually offset slightly, with a falloff that matches the light direction in the frame. This is the workhorse for catalogue sets: predictable, quick, and consistent across hundreds of SKUs.
The failure mode is a uniform blur applied at the same opacity to every product regardless of weight. A shoe and an earring do not sit on a surface the same way.
Reflection
A mirrored, fading copy beneath the product, as though it were standing on a polished surface. It suits glass, jewellery, cosmetics and electronics, and it looks dated on anything soft.
Pick one and hold it
Whichever you choose, the important thing is that the whole set uses it the same way: same direction, same softness, same distance. A grid of listing images where the shadow wanders is more distracting than no shadow at all.
Send one approved example and we will match every file in the batch to it.
