Thanks for the help so far. I will explain more about what I am doing, and the settings I have tried.
Firstly, I have tried the canvas settings, and this works for the built in viewer only.
To explain what I am doing, I need to get the captured image into a state that I can expand full screen without any title bars or menus. The only way I have found to do this is in a browser, eg Firefox, by using the F11 in FF to totally maximise an image. So after I capture the image in SC, I launch Firefox and pass the created file using "%file%". This works, but the created file (which is png), does not have the canvas settings. It has a permanent white background behind the shadow. The shadows don't seem to change with either the canvas settings or the settings in Special Effect Options. Eg, I can set the Backgnd to Red in Special Effect Options or in the Canvas settings, then capture an image and look at the autosaved png and the background is white.
Regards
Grant