Add a shadow to a photo

Most shadow tools fix the light top-left and let you change only how dark the shadow is. Here every shadow has a direction. The Depth styles carry an Angle control alongside Softness, Offset and Darkness, and the lift shadow under any other frame — found under Finish — has Angle, Distance and Softness of its own. The defaults reproduce the shadow every saved look has always had, down and to the right at 45°, so nothing you kept before changes.

The long shadow is the case that used to be stuck at one angle. It is now drawn as the rectangle swept along its throw at whatever angle you give it, one shape rather than a set of special cases, and the frame validator checks it at 45°, 135°, 225° and 315° on every build: the canvas has to grow on the two sides the shadow goes towards and stay put on the other two.

1. 1Open the photograph. A drop shadow is cast at 45° straight away.
2. 2Turn Angle to choose where it falls; Offset and Softness set its reach and blur.
3. 3For a graphic look pick Long shadow; for a card, Floating card.
4. 4Save as PNG or WebP to keep the space round the shadow clear.

• A very soft, very distant shadow on a small picture can make a file that is mostly empty space; the output size on the Save button shows it before you save.
• Shadows are canvas pixels. An SVG frame export carries the band but not its shadow, and says so.

Which way does the angle point?

The angle is the direction the shadow falls, measured the way a screen is drawn: 0° is to the right, 90° straight down, 135° down and to the left, 270° straight up. The readout under the slider says it in words.

Why did my file get bigger?

A shadow that falls outside the picture needs somewhere to land, so the canvas grows by exactly the room the shadow needs, and only on the sides it falls towards. A long shadow thrown down-left adds space on the left and bottom and none on the right.

Can the background behind the shadow be clear?

Yes, in PNG and WebP. The shadow is drawn with its own transparency, so it can be laid over any colour later. JPG has no clear channel, so the shadow lands on white or on the background colour you choose under Finish.

What is the difference between the three shadow styles?

Drop shadow is a soft shadow cast by the picture itself. Floating card puts the picture on a card and casts the card’s shadow. Long shadow is a hard-edged extrusion at any angle — a graphic look rather than a photographic one.

• Rounded cornersRound a photo's corners and its frame's corners separately, in pixels or percent, clear in PNG.
• Photo frame editorAll 39 frames drawn on your own photo, recoloured from the picture and saved at full size.
• Glow borderA seven-pass outer glow with visible spread, strength and colour controls.