There is a tree with alpha leaf textures. The falling shadow strongly darkens the leaves "below", which is why the model itself becomes dark.
Is there any way to avoid this blackout without affecting the rest of the shadows?
Demo and code in the same place
There is a shadowMaterial that is invisible but only renders shadow. You can set its opacity to mimic shadow darkness, here is a demonstration:
var planeMaterial = new THREE.ShadowMaterial();
planeMaterial.opacity = 0.5;
var shadowPlane = new THREE.Mesh( geometry, planeMaterial );
shadowPlane.receiveShadow = true;
Drawback: In older releases there has been a shadowDarkness-property that has been removed. Now you need extra geometry and material to emulate what has been a simple property.
I created another DirectionLight (slightly less bright than the main one, with a shadow) that only illuminates, on the opposite side from the main one, thereby it highlights the shaded places.
It's a stupid idea, but it helped me.