Abstract: In this paper, we address the different shadow detection methods and algorithms for both still and moving images as well as give a brief description of the advantages and disadvantages of each method. Shadow detection and removal is an important step in visual surveillance and monitoring systems. Shadow points are often misclassified as object points causing errors on localization, segmentation and classification of objects. Many algorithms and methods have been developed for different environmental conditions to detect shadow from the images. We will review some widely used methods how to detect shadows and extract it avoiding loss of texture information.