Howdy,
I think I have another obvious one that I am not getting: Shadow catcher.
With a sphere as my object on a plane, I should be able to simply use a Universal Material with Shadow Catcher ticked in order to create catch shadows within the preview and the render, yes?
I am looking at an HDRI scene that provides the floor imagery. Not seeing any shadows with my shadow catcher plane. When I lift the shadow catcher plane, it makes the object disappear, as if it were a boolean operation. (could be handy, I suppose)
Any help appreciated,
Rick