How does an object sometimes have multiple shadows of varying shades yet have only 1 light source?
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The simple answer is there is more than one light source. It can be achieved with an LED array bulb where there are multiple, sometimes tens of small LED lights in a single bulb or it can be caused by reflection.
There are either more than one light source or the walls around are projecting light from that one source but from other angles.
Light source is a bit of a vague term. A long overhead light could be considered one light source but light is coming out of both ends and every part inbetween which could all be considered a separate source of light that will be blocked by an object differently (and thus create different shadows). Light also bounces around and reflects off things which could be relevant.
If there is a single light source the most common reason you’d see multiple shadows is that some of that light is reflected off a surface nearby, creating effectively two (or more) light sources. You have light coming directly from the source, and light coming from a different direction indirectly from the same source by being reflected off something.
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