How we choose a shoot idea.

Where the ideas come from

Agency content briefs describe imagery an agency asks contributors to create. Creative trend reports describe broader visual themes. Contributor guides identify general subjects and practices. Each brief links to its source and separates that guidance from our interpretation of a specific scene.

Our current sources all come from Adobe. They provide one agency’s perspective, not a market-wide consensus. Some pages are undated or contain older context; we disclose this in the brief. A source check confirms relevance to the stated claim, not that the publisher collected new data that day.

How we order ideas

1. Ideas whose sources are within the review window appear before ideas with a review due.
2. Trend-led shoots prioritises ideas interpreted from a dated creative forecast. Evergreen subjects prioritises ideas based on ongoing subject guidance.
3. Within each group, ideas are alphabetical. There is no hidden demand or earnings score.

Your selected theme changes which ideas appear first. The shot lists, equipment suggestions and keyword starters are written by StockAlpha; the linked sources provide the agency guidance behind each subject.

Matching a plan to your circumstances

The personalised planner uses your phone or camera model, the lenses you own, whether you have lighting, the longest session you can shoot and the time you can give each week (including editing and submitting), together with your selected settings and participants, to filter a set of editorial shooting setups. Your interests put matching subjects first after source freshness; shorter setups then come first, with titles breaking ties. Experience changes the preparation advice. Each recommendation shows an estimated time budget for shooting plus editing, keywording and submitting, and a rough guide to how often that fits the lower end of your weekly band; both are editorial estimates, not targets. Lens suggestions describe framing reach in 35mm-equivalent bands: for listed phones from the maker’s published cameras (sensor-crop modes excluded), for an unlisted phone an assumed main camera, and for a camera from the focal lengths you tick, converted by your crop factor. They never rule a brief out and are not agency acceptance rules. Allow additional time for travel, arrangements and permissions.

If no setup fits, we show no recommendation. We do not look up your location, infer permission from a nearby venue, measure local demand or predict sales. This is explainable matching against a small catalogue; it has not been shown to improve earnings or outperform other planning methods.

Freshness and updates

Each source has a recorded check date. After 90 days, or once a forecast’s coverage ends, affected ideas are marked “Review due” and moved behind ideas with current checks. They remain available as older research. This is a review reminder, not an automatic content refresh.

New ideas need a source, a specific supporting claim, an interpretation and limitations before publication. A substantive review is required to advance a check date. We remove ideas when the evidence no longer supports them.

The sources we use

Research and commercial results

We do not measure live buyer sales, search volumes, competition or expected earnings. An agency’s request or a creative theme helps explain a direction, but does not guarantee acceptance or sales. Your photographs, their relevance to a buyer and licensing requirements all affect the outcome.