  We explore the characteristics of shadows for a general class of spherically
symmetric, static spacetimes, which may arise in general relativity or in
modified theories of gravity. The chosen line element involves a sum (with
constant but different coefficients) of integer powers of $\frac{1}{\text{r}}$
in $\text{g}_\text{tt}$ and $\text{g}_\text{rr}$, in the Schwarzschild gauge.
We begin our discussion by motivating the line element through a study of the
energy conditions (null and weak) and the extent to which they are
satisfied/violated for diverse choices of the parameters appearing in the
metric functions. Subsequently, we construct the circular shadows and analyse
the dependence of the shadow radius on the metric parameters. We find that with
specific choices of the metric parameters (within the ranges allowed by the
energy conditions) one can, in principle, obtain values that conform with
recent observations on shadows, as available in the literature. We also mention
where such metrics may arise (i.e., in which theory of gravity and the physical
scenario therein), thereby proposing that the observed shadows may be
representative signatures of different theoretical contexts.
