Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a process for creating contact shadows. Specifically, embodiments of the present disclosure include converting an original image to an initial shadow image, cropping the initial shadow image to obtain at least two slices of the initial shadow image, blurring the slices, overlaying the slices to create a combined shadow image, compressing the combined shadow image to create a contact shadow, and displaying the contact shadow on a virtual surface relative to the original image. Further, a user can change the amount of blurring the contact shadow has, the apparent offset from the surface, the perspective, the opacity, and the color of the contact shadow.