Low Contrast Studio Lighting w/ Directional Detail Shadow

[difficult.fondant]

I'm looking to create a scene to achieve similar results to the shots below and similar to the previous post by evanstuart. My objectives are also to

- Achieve an almost uniformly well-lit background with no blowouts on the product - in this case tables and chairs
- Cast a simple one direction shadow that picks up the details close to the ground and fades away quickly
- Determine what material I should use for the floor?

With all my attempts I can really only seem to get a large grey shadow under the table. I used a spotlight to attempt to pick up the chair legs (I figured HDR dots would not pick up that detail) but it blows out the floor. I have used simple diffuse white materials for the floor but not sure - what should I be using instead? If I turn off the floor I can use the "Ground" but not sure what this material is either.

Would anyone be willing to show (screenshot settings of HDRI or layout of scene) to help create this style of image seen below?

Thanks in advance!

[RRIS]

If you chose not to use geometry for your ground plane, you can tweak the shadow color in your environment tab.
There you can select a shade of gray for example instead of black, to lighten the shadow.
The floor in the image you posted doesn't seem to be anything special, not something you'd need a ground plane for (for example for blurry reflections).

[INNEO_MWo]

Do you ever tried to use the image style to change some contrast or curves?