Shadow services

Get natural shadows that show your products in their best light

Make your product photos look more realistic with outsourced shadow making services — at a price that's more than worth it.

Starting at 25¢ per image

Spending all day drawing drop shadows sucks the passion from your work

If you want your products to sell, you need shadows that look real. Shadows give your photos dimension and make your products jump off the page.

One shadow isn’t going to cut it, you need layer upon layer, especially for intricate product details. But layering, masking, messing with density, feathering for hours — that’s not the job you signed up for. The built-in drop shadow tool is garbage, so creating a realistic shadow takes precision and patience. And time. Lots of it.

Leave it to the experts

Outsource even your most intricate clipping path projects to Path’s team of experts, starting at 25¢ per image. You can get large batches of images edited faster and cheaper, in as little as 6 hours.

Shadows are important, but it takes a real pro to get them right. We’ll create the perfect shape for your shadow, every time. We expertly create each shadow by hand, perfectly executing drop shadow, floating shadow, natural shadow, the hover effect, and any other shadow needs. Let’s bring your products to life and start driving sales.

These shadow services deserve the spotlight

  • What are shadow services?

    Realistic shadows add depth to product photography. But sometimes the lighting isn’t right in the photograph, or you’re removing the background to show off your products, and you need to add shadows after the fact.

    That’s where shadow making services come in.

    Done well, these shadows make your products look more appealing to customers, even when the effect is subtle. Especially when you’re showcasing your products against a white background, shadows will help make your products pop — instead of looking flat and lifeless.

    Shadows also help when you need to distinguish your product from the background (a white dress against a white background, for example), and with creating a consistent look across all of your product images.

  • What kind of shadow effects can you do?

    What kind of shadow effects can you do?

    Drop shadow

    Add depth to product shots, making objects stand out against the background with a subtle shadow effect.

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    Natural Shadow

    Make it look like your product has cast a shadow on the background or surface, using an imaginary light source that’s created by the editor.

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    Existing shadow

    Maintain naturally occurring shadows that you want to keep in your shot, even when you’re removing or replacing the background. This is also known as cast shadow.



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    Floating shadow


    Make your product look like it’s hovering above a surface.

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    Reflection shadow

    Make your products shine — literally. This type of shadow makes products look like they’re resting on a reflective surface.

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  • How much do shadow services costs?

    Pricing for shadow services depends on the type of shadow you need, as well as the complexity of the shadow we’ll be creating for you. Every image is different, but we follow standard pricing guidelines to make sure your rate is always clear and objective, even if you’re working with a different designer.

    Here’s an overview of our categories for shadow pricing:

    Drop shadow25¢ per image

    A basic drop shadow is fairly simple to create, and doesn’t require too much customization from image to image, so every drop shadow is priced at a simple flat rate.

    Great for:

    • Ecommerce product photography
    • Adding a natural depth to images that have had the backgrounds removed

    Basic natural shadows69¢ per image


    Natural shadows are a bit more complex to create, because each shadow needs to be precisely created according to your product’s shape and context. The simplest natural shadows to create usually involve one product, casting a fairly simple shadow.

    Great For:

    • Images with a single object
    • Relatively simple shapes
    • Shoes
    • Jewelry

    Simple natural shadows$1.29 per image

    These images will include one or more small to medium size products that need multiple shadows to look natural.

    Great for:


    • Small groupings of basic shapes
    • Simple furniture

    Complex natural shadows$2.99 per image

    This is our most complex category for natural shadows. These images usually include large items with multiple products, and need multiple shadows created for them to look right.

    Great for:

    • Groupings of products with more than 3 items
    • Complex machinery
    • Furniture sets

    Existing shadow69¢ per image

    When you want to maintain a photo’s existing shadows against a new background, this is the way to do it. Every existing shadow is priced at a simple flat rate.

    Great for:

    • Keeping existing shadows with a background change

    Floating shadow25¢ per image

    Floating shadows are another type of shadow that’s fairly simple to create, and doesn’t vary too much from product to product. That’s why we’ve priced all floating shadows at a simple flat rate.

    Great for:

    • Creating a hover effect on product photos

    Basic reflection shadows69¢ per image

    The easiest reflection shadows to create include products with flat bottoms, which can be flipped to create a mirror effect without too many adjustments.

    Great for:

    • Symmetrical objects
    • Bicycles
    • Smartphones
    • Watches

    Simple reflection shadows$1.29 per image

    Our next level of reflection shadows include 1-2 products with bottoms that aren’t flat or symmetrical, which means the shadow needs to be adjusted to achieve a natural mirror effect.

    Great for:

    • Shoes
    • Furniture
    • Packaging or boxes with asymmetrical graphics

    Complex reflection shadow$2.99 per image

    Our most complex reflection shadows involve multiple products or groupings, each requiring its own individual mirror effect.

    Great for:

    • Product shots with multiple items

Why ecommerce entrepreneurs and photographers use Path drop shadow services

Your talent and creative energy is best spent on doing what you love — not layering and feathering for hours to get the perfect shadow.

  • 40,000+ customers have trusted us with their image edits.
  • 8 million images enhanced and brought to life.

We expertly draw every shadow by hand. We’re not finished until every shadow has the perfect shape.

How it works

  1. Order your edits

    Upload your images, tell us a bit about what you need, and get a clear, budget-friendly price on the spot.

  2. Your designer edits your images by hand

    Our pro designers will tackle those tedious image edits, while you get back to the fun stuff.

  3. Get your images back in as little as 6 hours

    We’ll double-check your images to make sure they’re pixel perfect, and then send them right over.

How to know if outsourced shadow services are for you

You don’t have to do everything yourself. Outsourced shadow services are ideal if you are...

  • A busy professional photographer with batches of edits due from a recent product photoshoot

  • An ecommerce retailer who wants to use their time to move the needle instead of fiddling around in Photoshop

  • A freelancer or agency with tight client deadlines and tons of other deliverables to wrangle