Conceptual photography is done to illustrate an idea and it is an off-shoot of conceptual art movement of the late 1960s. It is capable of conveying the intended message to those viewing the photograph. Presently, conceptual photography is seen as an art to depict an idea, a message, a methodology or a genre often called, concept.
The 'concept' can be both preconceived and eventual to make one to think abstractly to find the meaning or the message it intends to convey. These days, concept photography is being frequently used in advertising and illustrations to reiterate a catchphrase that accompanies it.
In advertisements, concept photographs are produced to make consumers visualize a predetermined message. Often, the picture editing softwares like Adobe Photoshop are used to manipulate images to seamlessly combine photographs or photographic elements to highlight the concept image. Such photography is used for book jackets and covers of music albums as well these days.
For describing a genre, conceptual art photography once again popular to document performances, ephemeral sculpture or actions along with its use for commercial purposes. It requires a lot of abstract and creative thinking and uses modern photo-editing software.
Thus, concept shooting involves a great deal of imagination and mental rigour, rather than simple scene analysis. The thought process involves conceptualizing the message, view point, emotional or psychological factor, audience and artistic composition of storytelling and conveying the message.