Just to add a quick note about shadow density:

In all my images, I always use shadow density at 100% and, as you can see for yourself in my gallery, my shadows are never pitch black (unless when I want it, for some reason, like in outer space or in a very dense forest, for example). This is because I use a combination of the methods I described above, depending on the scene at hand. The shadows look much more natural using my methods than using small values of shadow density, IMO.