Shot list template

A photography shot list template, filled in

Every column a stills shot list needs and what each one is actually for — then the same thing filled in for a real shoot day, grouped in the order it gets shot, ready to print.

No account and nothing to download: this is a page, so ⌘P (or Ctrl+P) turns the list below into a PDF and the site’s furniture drops away when it does. If what you want is the reasoning — how much detail is useful, and why a group and a tag are not the same thing — that is the guide next door: how to write a shot list for a photoshoot.

The columns, and what each one is for

A shot list is not a shooting script and it is not a mood board. Its job is to tell someone reading it cold what to capture and in what order, which means photographic specification rather than scene description. Note what is absent: there is no frame rate, no camera movement and no sound, because none of those describe a photograph.

Column	What goes in it	Why it earns a column
Ref	The group’s letter and the shot’s number — “A 1”, “B 6”	What people say out loud on set. The letter is the group’s position rather than a stored label, so reordering the day renumbers the sheet instead of leaving a stale “C” on something you already moved.
Shot	A short title, and a note only where it changes what you do	Specific enough to shoot from cold. “Trench detail — cuff and buckle” survives being read by an assistant at 7am; “detail shot” does not.
Size	EWS, WS, MWS, MS, MCU, CU, ECU, DET	The single most useful column, because it decides the lens and roughly how long the set-up takes. These are the abbreviations as they get written on a real sheet.
Angle	eye level, high, low, overhead / flat lay, dutch, worm's eye	Worth a column mainly because overhead work is a different rig. Flat lays grouped together save an hour of rebuilding.
Orientation	Portrait, landscape or square	The column clients care about most and photographers forget most, because the crop is usually specified by where the image is going.
Lens and aperture	Focal length in millimetres, and an f-stop where it matters	Fill it in where the look depends on it and leave it blank where it does not. A sheet with a guessed f-stop on every row teaches everyone to ignore the column.
Lighting	natural, strobe, continuous, mixed	Shots sharing one lighting set-up belong next to each other, which is what a group is for. This column is how you spot the ones that do not.
Wardrobe, props, styling	The look, the piece, anything that has to be on set for this row	What a stylist reads the list for. It is also the honest answer to how many looks a day really holds.
Talent	Who is in frame	Drives call times: a model in two shots at either end of the day is either a long booking or a reorder waiting to happen.
Priority	must-have or nice-to-have	So the answer to “what do we drop, we are an hour down” is already written down and agreed, rather than decided while everyone stands about.
Est.	An estimated duration in whole minutes	The load-bearing column. Without it a shot list is a list; with it, the running order and the wrap time are arithmetic rather than a second document.
Tags	Cross-cutting labels — a product line, a delivery folder, a campaign	A second, independent cut across the same shots. A group says when you shoot it; a tag says which folder it belongs in afterwards. The difference matters.

Autumn/Winter lookbook

for Halden & Rowe · Shot list

Shots

Groups

Must-haves

14 of 16

Estimated

7h 50m

A — Outerwear

5 shots · 2h 35m

Shoot in the order the look book runs — do not reset the rail between looks.

Ref	Shot	Priority	Est.
A 1	Wool overcoat, full lengthWS · Eye level · portrait · 65mm · f/5.6 · Strobe · Anouk RasmussenTags: lookbook, outerwear	must-have	40m
A 2	Overcoat, three-quarter with toteMWS · Eye level · portrait · 90mm · f/5.6 · Strobe · Anouk RasmussenTags: lookbook, outerwear, accessories	must-have	30m
A 3	Trench, walkingWS · Low · portrait · 50mm · f/4 · Strobe · Kofi AdjeiTags: lookbook, outerwear	must-have	35m
A 4	Trench detail — cuff and buckleDET · High · square · 120mm · f/11 · Strobe · Kofi AdjeiTags: e-comm, detail	must-have	20m
A 5	Overshirt, seatedMS · Eye level · portrait · 90mm · f/4 · Strobe · Anouk RasmussenTags: lookbook	must-have	30m

B — Knitwear & layering

4 shots · 1h 50m

Steamer on the floor between every look — the cable knit creases on the rail.

Ref	Shot	Priority	Est.
B 6	Cable knit, hands in pocketsMS · Eye level · portrait · 90mm · f/2.8 · Strobe · Kofi AdjeiTags: lookbook, knitwear	must-have	30m
B 7	Knit texture, macroECU · Eye level · square · 120mm · f/16 · ContinuousTags: e-comm, detail, knitwear	must-have	20m
B 8	Layered look, full lengthWS · Eye level · portrait · 65mm · f/5.6 · Strobe · Anouk Rasmussen, Kofi AdjeiTags: lookbook, knitwear	must-have	35m
B 9	Scarf and gloves, closeCU · Eye level · portrait · 120mm · f/8 · Strobe · Anouk RasmussenTags: e-comm, accessories	must-have	25m

C — Rooftop

3 shots · 1h 40m

Wind on the roof: weight the stands, no scrims above 4ft.

Ref	Shot	Priority	Est.
C 10	Rooftop, wide with skylineEWS · Low · landscape · 35mm · f/8 · Natural · Kofi AdjeiTags: lookbook, campaign	must-have	40m
C 11	Rooftop portrait, backlitMCU · Eye level · portrait · 85mm · f/1.8 · Mixed · Anouk RasmussenTags: campaign	must-have	30m
C 12	Rooftop pair, walking awayWS · Eye level · landscape · 50mm · f/4 · Natural · Anouk Rasmussen, Kofi AdjeiTags: campaign	nice-to-have	30m

D — Coast

4 shots · 1h 45m

Last light. Everything is loaded before the first frame — there is no second take on this one.

Ref	Shot	Priority	Est.
D 13	Cliff path, walking wideEWS · Eye level · landscape · 35mm · f/5.6 · Natural · Kofi AdjeiTags: campaign	must-have	35m
D 14	Dunes hero, last lightMWS · Low · portrait · 85mm · f/2 · Natural · Anouk RasmussenTags: campaign, hero	must-have	35m
D 15	Silhouette against the seaWS · Eye level · landscape · 135mm · f/2.8 · Natural · Anouk RasmussenTags: campaign	must-have	20m
D 16	Both models, shingle, last frameMWS · Eye level · landscape · 50mm · f/2 · Natural · Anouk Rasmussen, Kofi AdjeiTags: campaign	nice-to-have	15m

A made-up label and a made-up crew, on the same shoot day as the call sheet example — so you can see the same sixteen shots as a list and then as a day. Set on warm paper rather than the dark interface, because this is the page that gets printed and marked up.

If you are keeping it in a spreadsheet

Plenty of shot lists live in Google Sheets or Excel, and there is nothing wrong with that on shoot one. This is the column order to set up, with three rows filled in so the format is obvious.

Ref | Shot | Size | Angle | Orientation | Lens | Aperture | Lighting | Wardrobe / props | Talent | Priority | Est. | Tags | Notes

A 1 | Wool overcoat, full length | WS | Eye level | Portrait | 65mm | f/4 | Strobe | Look 1, camel coat | Anouk | must-have | 40 | lookbook, hero |
A 2 | Overcoat, three-quarter with tote | MWS | Eye level | Portrait | 90mm | f/2.8 | Strobe | Look 1 + tote | Anouk | must-have | 30 | lookbook |
B 6 | Cable knit, hands in pockets | MS | Eye level | Portrait | 90mm | f/2.8 | Strobe | Look 4, cable knit | Kofi | must-have | 30 | lookbook |

Group rows in the order you will shoot them. The letter is the group's position, so it
renumbers itself when you reorder — do not type it in as data you then have to maintain.
Durations in whole minutes: they are what turns the list into a schedule.

The cost of the spreadsheet version is not the typing, it is the second document. Reorder two groups because the light changed and the running order, the wrap time and the call sheet all have to be redone by hand — and the version that got printed the night before is now wrong in a way nobody notices until they are on set. That is the job the product does: the schedule is built from the shot list and the call sheet follows from it.

The list above was not laid out for this page. Those are the real fields, and the letters, counts and running times on it are worked out from the shots — which is the whole difference between a template you maintain and a list that maintains the rest of the day.

Write your shot list in Latentshoot

Frequently asked

What columns should a photography shot list have?

A reference, the shot itself, and then genuinely photographic specification: size, angle, orientation, focal length, aperture, lighting, and whatever wardrobe, prop or styling note applies. Two more carry more weight than they look like they should — a priority, so you have an honest answer ready for what gets dropped, and an estimated duration, which is what turns the list into a schedule.

Should a shot list have a duration on every row?

Yes, and it is the one field worth being strict about. Without a duration per shot, the running order and the wrap time become a second document maintained by hand; with it, both are arithmetic. A rough number you correct after the first shoot beats a blank.

Do I need a shot list template for a small shoot?

The structure matters more than the size of the job. A three-shot morning still benefits from the sizes and durations being written down, because that is what makes the day predictable — but keep it to the columns you will actually fill in, since an empty column is worse than no column.

Can I keep a shot list in Excel or Google Sheets?

You can, and the column order on this page is there for exactly that. What a spreadsheet cannot do is derive the rest of the day from it — reorder two groups and the running order, the wrap time and the call sheet all have to be retyped by hand, which is the cost that shows up on the third or fourth shoot rather than the first.

Write your shot list in Latentshoot See the shot list feature

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