An adaptive shadow control system that compensates for blockage of one lighthead of a surgical lighting system by increasing the light output from one or more other lightheads of the lighting system. The system also includes control logic for automatic enablement/disablement of adaptive shadow control by detecting whether there is blockage of a lighthead and whether the respective light beams of a plurality of lightheads are being aggregated to form a single aggregated co-illumination light pattern at a work area.