Frequently asked questions

Yes. ShootCal is fully free while it's in beta, with no subscriptions. Your data lives securely in your Google Calendar, so you're never locked into a monthly fee or a closed platform. Depending on how things go, there may eventually be a small charge for the web version to help cover server costs, but the apps stay a one-time, no-subscription download.

Yes, and it's something no other photography app does. ShootCal uses Claude AI to scan your existing Google Calendar, pull your past and upcoming clients out of your event titles, and match each one to the right session type (family, wedding, engagement, and more), building your client list and booking history automatically. You always see a preview and approve before anything is added, and it only adds clients and organizes your bookings. Your calendar itself is never changed. You can choose how far back and forward to scan, and set up your session types first so the matches are accurate.

Set your city once and ShootCal calculates sunset and sunrise times for any date, automatically setting your session start times based on sunset or sunrise. Every default time is fully customizable with your own session types.

Yes. You create, edit, and delete events directly in the app, and two-way background sync ensures your changes update automatically.

No. The public availability calendar on your website shows only which days are open, limited, or fully booked. Event titles, locations, and details are never exposed.

macOS 26 or later, iOS 26 or later, and a Google account with Calendar access. There's also a web app you can use in any modern browser.

Yes. Turn on online booking and your availability calendar becomes a request form. A client picks an open day (and a time slot, if you offer them), sends their details, and the request lands in your ShootCal inbox. You review it and accept to add it to your calendar, or decline with a quick reply. Nothing is booked automatically until you say so.

You choose. By default a day shows as booked once you have any event on it. You can also switch to deposit-only mode, where a day stays open until you mark that session as deposit received. That lets you hold soft inquiries without blocking the date for everyone else.

Yes. Toggle any session as deposit received and it color-codes green on both ShootCal and your Google Calendar (red when nothing is in yet), so your paid and unpaid bookings are clear at a glance. You can also connect Wave so a paid invoice marks the deposit received automatically. See how payments and deposits work →

Yes. ShootCal reads plain English. Type something like “June 30 family session for the Smiths at sunset [email protected]” and it fills in the date, time, client, and email, schedules it around golden hour, and can send the invite. It runs on device, so nothing is sent away to be parsed.

Yes. Each day can show a five-day weather forecast or the day's high and low tides, right alongside sunrise and sunset times. Pick whichever is more useful for the kind of shoots you do.

In your own Google Contacts, under a dedicated “ShootCal Clients” label, never on our servers. Every saved session bumps that client's booking count and last-booked date, and you can keep private notes (gate codes, preferred poses, allergies) that travel with the contact.

Yes. Add a reminder straight from a session, for example “deliver the gallery in two weeks,” and it shows in your calendar separate from events, ready to check off when it's done. They sync with Google Tasks, so they appear on every device and in your Google account.

Yes. A watch app and complication show your next event and the next 30 days, and home-screen widgets surface what matters on a shoot day: client name, time, location, sunrise and sunset, and tides.

No, either one works on its own, and they share the same Google account so everything stays in sync. Use the Mac, iPhone, and iPad apps for the full native experience, or the web app in any modern browser. The public availability calendar your clients see comes from the same data.