Systems and methods for shadow detection and reduction during document capture are disclosed herein. Temporary images of hardcopy documents are analyzed to determine the presence of a shadow or hotspot that obscures information of the hardcopy document. In response to detecting the shadow or hotspot, a controllable light source is used to illuminate the hardcopy document at predicted and/or predetermined intensities to minimize or eliminate the shadow on the hardcopy document. A permanent image of the hardcopy document illuminated by the controllable light source at the intensity that minimizes or eliminates the shadow is then stored. In this way, information of the hardcopy document (such as text, color, layout, spacing etc.) is increased in the permanent image and a need for post-processing the permanent image is reduced or eliminated.