How to create depth, dimension, and realism in your images? All you need to do is to add shadow to photo. Whether you’re taking photos of models, business professional portraits or e-commerce products, adding carefully crafted shadows can transform flat images into dynamic visual masterpieces. Shadows not only enhance the subject by adding a natural background, but also emphasize the contours and textures of the object, just like a realistic AI-painted shadow drawing.
In today’s competitive visual market, understanding how to effectively create shadows – using tools like Shadow AI or AI Shadow Generator – can dramatically improve your work. Read on to learn how Evoto simplifies the process with its powerful background editor.
Evoto AI Drop Shadow Editor – Add Shadow to Photos
Evoto’s Background Editor takes the hassle out of creating realistic shadow effects and makes it easy to add shadow to photo projects. It has an intuitive interface and offers a full set of adjustments designed to produce natural, professional-looking shadow effects. Thus, it is particularly useful for photographers, content creators, and businesses looking to enhance product images or portraits.
Check the tweaks of the AI drop shadow editor feature below:
- Shadow Angles: You can control shadow angles to align the shadow with the light source, ensuring the effect is both authentic and flattering.
- Shadow intensity and position: The shadow editor allows to choose a shadow preset, from soft shadow, hard shadow, to bold drop shadow.
- Shadow Opacity: You can fine-tune the shadow transparent intensity settings to affect the intensity of the shadows.
- Shadow Blur: Adjusting the shadow blur can soften the edges for a more natural effect.
- Shadow Gradient: You can adjust the shadow gradient to create a smooth transition, mimicking real-world light behavior.
Note that before you begin editing shadows, the background must be processed as a solid color, ensuring that the subsequent AI drop shadow or shadow editor functions correctly.
How to Add Shadow Photos with Evoto
If needed, the AI shadow generator can assist you in easily changing shadows on photos of portraits or subjects according to the demanded lighting direction in the methods as below.
How to Add Shadow to Professional Portrait Photos?
The AI Shadow Maker excels at mimicking a professionally lit studio portrait with perfectly balanced portrait shadows.
Just follow these steps to add shadow to the photo:
Step 1. Download Evoto and import your photo that needs to add portrait shadows.
Evoto AI Photo Editor – Faster Edits, Finer Control
Step 2. Start by ensuring the background is a solid, neutral color. If not, navigate to the right feature panel > Background Adjustments > Backdrop Changer > choose a solid color background from the provided collections, and “Gray02” will be better.
Step 3. Still in Backdrop Changer > Add Shadow feature > Select one shadow from the AI drop shadow options, including Soft, Hard, and Drop.
Step 4. After the initial step to add shadow to photo, move the sliders to fine-tune the intensity of opacity, shadow blur, and gradient until the shadows on your photo look natural.
Step 5. For a more personalized shadow drop effect, you can activate the edit brush mode to adjust the shadow position manually.
- You can click on the option “Show Shadow Anchor” and reset the shadows’ start point by moving the sliders of “Horizontal” and “Vertical”. Another way, you can manually move the anchors on the canvas to reset the shadows’ position.
- Then, adjust shadow distance to simulate changes of lighting in the horizontal direction. Next, adjust shadow angle to simulate changes of lighting in the vertical direction.
Step 6. Click the “Before and After” button (or Shift + Y）to evaluate the overall impact. The shadow can be easily changed according to the desired lighting direction. Also, it should enhance the portrait by creating a natural backdrop and adding dimension to the subject’s features.
How to Add Shadow to Object Photographs?
Except to add shadow to photo of portraits, you can enhance product images with shadows as well. This helps improve their visual appeal and creates a sense of realism that can boost consumer confidence.
Step 1. Follow the steps above to ensure the product image has a solid-colored background if it doesn’t.
Step 2. Open the shadow editor and select the product image.
In the “Add Shadow” parameters, you can choose an AI shadow drop type and modify the shadow opacity, shadow blur, and shadow gradient, making the shadows correspond with the assumed light source.
Step 3. If you are not satisfied with the AI shadow drops, you can use the brush to manually change the shadow direction and position.
- You just need to set the shadow anchor first.
- Move it horizontally or vertically to decide the shadow starting position.
- Move the sliders of “Shadow Distance” and “Shadow Angle” to match the natural lighting direction.
Step 4. Click OK to save the changes. And click the “Before and After” button (or Shift+Y) to verify that the shadow enhances the product’s appearance. For e-commerce photos, a moderate intensity that offers a crisp shadow outline is usually ideal.
Step 5. Finally, export it locally in formats you need.
Through these steps, you can see the simplicity of auto-process perfectly cooperated with manual methods in adding shadow to photo. This makes it easier to produce high-quality, natural-looking shadows to various subjects in photos.
Evoto AI Photo Editor – Faster Edits, Finer Control
How to Add Shadow to Photo on Photoshop
Adding shadows in Photoshop can be effective but often requires a more manual, time-intensive process.
Here’s a brief guide on how to add shadow in photoshop:
Step 1. Create a New Layer: Duplicate the image layer and isolate the object using masking tools.
Step 2. Apply a Drop Shadow: Use the layer styles to add a drop shadow. Adjust the angle, distance, spread, and size to mimic natural lighting.
Step 3. Fine-Tune: Manually tweak the shadow’s opacity, blur, and gradient to achieve the desired effect. This process requires in-depth knowledge of backdrop lighting and how to add drop shadow Photoshop.
Evoto AI Shadow Simulator vs. Photoshop Shadow Editor
Compared to the simplified automated process to add shadow to photo in the AI Photo Editor, Photoshop’s approach is much more complex.
Photoshop requires advanced familiarity with the shadow simulator’s cumbersome setup parameters, which are then automatically adjusted, over and over again, to achieve realistic shadows.
Evoto, on the other hand, requires only a ready-made AI shading template to assist simple manual fine-tuning, which allows for precise and fast editing and professional shading effects without a lot of manual work.
Read More: How to Keep Shadow after Background Removal
Additional Photo Editing Tools
Evoto doesn’t stop at just adding shadows; it provides complementary tools to perfect your images:
- Background Clutter Removal: Quickly eliminate unwanted elements from the backdrop, ensuring the focus remains on the subject.
- Background Distractions Removal: Fine-tune the background by removing distractions that could detract from the overall composition, making your image appear cleaner and more professional.
- Background Changing: Swap out the current background for a more suitable one, enhancing the overall atmosphere of the photo. This is ideal for creating object show backgrounds with uniform natural backgrounds.
- Sky Replacement in Landscape Photos: Replace dull or overcast skies with vibrant, clear ones. Meanwhile, use Add Shadow feature to complement the shadow effect and add realism and depth to outdoor scenes.
Together, these features work in harmony to create flawless, visually appealing backgrounds for images.
Evoto AI Photo Editor – Faster Edits, Finer Control
Whether you’re using a shadow generator for a box shadow maker effect or automating shades with shadow AI, the AI tools ensure that every detail—from blur edges after effects to black shadow figures—is perfectly rendered.
Conclusion
To significantly enhance the depth and realism of an image, you need to add shadow to photo. Evoto AI Photo Editor comes with powerful tools such as AI shadows and intuitive controls, making it easier than ever to achieve professional-quality shadows. Explore and try these features now to take your photos to the next level!
