張先以「三影」傳世，詞中用「影」字多達三十闋，張先詞之表現手法，亦以「影」字最為奇巧顯著，歷代詞評中，對於「三影」之說雖有所異同，但仍足以證明張先詞用影之妙。張先用「影」之特色包含所描述之影意象豐富：除了為數最多的自然之影、豐富多樣的器物之影、人物的倒影之外，尚有指涉隱喻一類，使表面所寫之影另有實際所指的特殊意義，豐富詞境。其次為善用影字韻，以影字為韻腳，重筆描繪，表達詞人心緒及用字喜好；再者動詞與形容詞之妙用，使「影」化實為虛，凸顯影之動態；最後，三十闋詞中二首「無影之影」，符合所描述之柳絮的特色，獨特呈現。在同期作家中，張先獨以數量取勝；而在同樣大量用影之詞中，則以靈巧活用為妙，使張先得以寫影之作在北宋詞壇中獨樹一格。

Chang-Xian left the world with "San-Ying", which means "three shadows". Among his Ci poems, he used the word "Ying" in up to thirty pieces. It is also the using of the word "Ying" in his Ci poems that is the most remarkable. The characteristics of using the word "Ying" include the abundance of the Ying he described, his using Ying as the rhyming word, the skillful use of the verbs and the adjectives, and the distinctive presentation of "wu ying zhi ying", meaning that Chang-Xian seemed not to describe Ying but actually he did. Because of his clever design and the flexibility of his word use, Chang-Xian is unique with his Ci poems about Ying in the Ci poetry field of the Northern Song Dynasty.