Pokopia Photo Ops: All 50 Highlight Reel Shots and Frames

Pokopia's camera, on the Minus button, comes with a 50-shot checklist. It sits in the Collection menu as the Highlight Reel, it only fills when you photograph a particular Pokemon doing a particular thing, and it is where most of the game's photo frames come from: Bulbapedia's frame table ties 15 frames to individual photo ops, against the 12 you start with.

Serebii and Bulbapedia both list 50 photo ops as of Ver. 2.0.1: 44 in the base game and 6 in Bubbly Basin, under the same 50 names. They agree a lot less on the setups. This guide gives a setup that satisfies both lists wherever they split, and says so where they cannot both be right.

How a photo op fires

Here is the loop, pieced together from Bulbapedia's photo op and photography pages and games.gg's photo op guide:

1. A notification appears in the top-right corner. Bulbapedia records the text as "Get your camera! A great photo op is happening nearby!"
2. Open the camera. Press Minus, or open it through the Pokedex. Bulbapedia's photography page describes the camera as part of Ditto's Pokedex.
3. Find the subject. Bulbapedia says the camera view puts a border around any Pokemon that can be the subject of the shot.
4. Shoot with the in-game camera. games.gg warns that the Switch's own screenshot button does not register a photo op.
5. Check the reel. games.gg says the op's title flashes on screen when the shot counts, and the photo is filed under Highlight Reel in the Collection.

The trigger is the part worth understanding. Serebii's Highlight Reel page says each op needs a specific Pokemon or group, a specific item, or both, and that an item "needs to be active" before the op can happen. Its row for Drawn to the Light spells that out, saying the streetlight "needs to be lit", and our read is that a campfire works the same way. games.gg's advice is to put the props inside your Pokemon's habitats, and to spread copies of common ones such as campfires, perches and hot springs across several of them. Neither source gives a way to force an op on demand.

games.gg also says each op fires once. When a shot is in your reel, that scripted moment does not repeat, so get the framing right before you press the button.

The 15 shots that pay a photo frame

These are the ones to plan around, because each unlocks a frame you can put on later photos. Frame names follow Bulbapedia's frame table; Serebii calls Dust Cloud "Dusty Cloud". The last three need the Expansion Pass.

Three notes on that table:

• Balloons is the shaky row. Bulbapedia's frame table ties a Balloons frame to the Lullaby. Serebii's reel table leaves that reward blank and lists 14 frame rewards, not 15. Treat the 15th as one source's report until you see it yourself.
• Night matters more than Serebii says. Serebii marks two ops as night-only: Greetings from Beyond the Grave and Drawn to the Light. Bulbapedia puts five at night, adding Toasty Warm by the Campfire, Spacious Slumber Party and DJ Droppin' the Beats!. Set all five up at night and both lists are satisfied.
• BAM! is tied to the story. Serebii lists Mosslax and Peakychu at the charging station, Bulbapedia's condition is Mosslax after it has fully woken up as part of the storyline, and games.gg says the op is locked until the Bleak Beach story is done. Our electricity guide covers the charging-station request that wakes Mosslax.

Where the frame props come from

Everything below is from Serebii's item and crafting tables. "Placed in" means an original already sitting in that area that you can pick up.

Serebii gives no fixed location for several of those recipes, including the punching bag, gravestone, shower, sprinkler and blank canvas. It lists them as Daily Shop specials and sparkling-water finds, and its crafting page says recipes like these turn up at random in water ripples that reset each day. If one has not turned up yet, you may simply have to wait for it. Our water guide covers ripples, and the electricity guide covers getting power to a streetlight.

The 21 prop shots with no frame

These pay nothing but the photo itself. Where the two wikis name different subjects, the table leads with one that fits both; where they name different props, it leads with Serebii's. Either way, the other wiki's version is in brackets.

Six of those rows need a note.

• Three props come out of Lost Relics. Serebii's item table lists the Munna bank and the Rowlet clock only as appraised relics, and the funky diffuser as an appraised relic or a glowing-terrain find. Serebii's Lost Relics page says relics are dug out of those same glowing blocks and that Professor Tangrowth appraises them, and our fossils guide covers digging relics up.
• The Icy Rock needs the Expansion Pass, or a trade. Serebii's item table has two sources for it: a natural find on the Starmie Doll Dream Island, and trades with Gimmighoul or Gholdengo. Serebii's Pokemon Center page names the Starmie Doll as Expansion Pass content. Without the pass, try Bulbapedia's alternatives first: a refrigerator or a gaming fridge.
• You cannot craft a mossy boulder. Serebii's routes are to photograph one and 3D print it, or to pick it up with Magnet Rise by holding Y.
• Clefairy covers the bonfire either way. Serebii asks for a Pokemon with the Hype specialty and Bulbapedia names Clefairy, which carries Hype in Serebii's Pokedex.

The 11 pair shots

No prop needed, just two residents close enough to meet. Bulbapedia's conditions are the pair talking or interacting with each other. games.gg says Heracross and Pinsir both have to be living in your town at the same time. Our read is that the same applies to every pair, so house them near each other.

Some Shared Genes is the expensive pair. It needs both Mewtwo and Mew, and Serebii's legendary page says Mew only appears once you have found all 27 Mysterious Slates. Our legendary guide covers both. For Eevee's Friends, keep Eevee plus two of its evolutions around and you meet both wikis' wording.

Bubbly Basin's other three

Bubbly Basin adds six ops in all. Three pay frames and sit in the table above; these three do not. All six need the Expansion Pass.

Similar Seafarers needs both Manaphy and Phione. Serebii's important-requests page has Manaphy appear inside the Ocean Temple once you build it for Popplio, and its legendary page ties Phione to the Starmie Doll Dream Island. Our Bubbly Basin walkthrough covers getting both.

Where Serebii and Bulbapedia split

We checked the reel against Serebii's Highlight Reel page, Bulbapedia's photo op page and games.gg's guide, which covers 23 of the 50. All three agree on the names. They split in four ways:

• Who counts. Serebii often names one species where Bulbapedia names a whole type or family, or the other way round. In every case we checked, at least one Pokemon or pairing fits both: Trubbish, the Abra line, Meowth, Gimmighoul, Clefairy, Larvitar, Mareanie and Primarina. Use that one.
• Which prop. Wildflowers or a Pretty flower bed, a computer or a laptop, a large mirror or any mirror, a shower or a sprinkler, an Icy Rock or a fridge. Where you can, place both.
• When. Serebii marks two night-only ops and Bulbapedia marks five. Shoot those five after dark.
• What it pays. The Balloons frame on the Lullaby is Bulbapedia's alone.

Bulbapedia's photo op article also carries an "incomplete" banner, so treat its setups as a work in progress rather than the final word.

The camera does more than the reel

Bulbapedia's photography page lists what Photo mode can do: move and zoom, tilt the camera, switch between landscape and selfie shots, change Ditto's expression and pose, make the subjects look at the lens, and use a Tripod once you have bought one from a PC. Photos save to the in-game album and can also be saved to the Switch 2's own album. Bulbapedia's photo op page lists eight filters, Vivid, Cool, Soft, Dreamy, Toy Camera, Monochrome, Silhouette and Retro, all available from the start.

The album has three jobs beyond keepsakes:

• Reference photos are blueprints. Serebii's Pokemon Center page says you switch a photo to Reference mode with Y, take it to the 3D Printer at a Pokemon Center, and print a copy for 1 to 10 Pokemetal Ingots or 1 to 5 Rare Pokemetal Ingots, depending on the item. Expansion Pass items will not print without the pass, even if you photograph them on a Cloud Island. Our multiplayer guide covers using this on other players' towns.
• Smearguru reads them. Nintendo's update history for Ver. 2.0.0 says "Smearguru can now learn patterns from photos stored in References." Our painting guide covers what he does with them.
• Photos go on display. Serebii lists a photo frame for tables and stands and a wall photo frame, each crafted from 1 paper and 1 lumber, and says a powered Gaming PC's monitor shows photos too; Bulbapedia adds computer and laptop screens. Ver. 2.0.0 raised the number of different photos a town can display from 10 to 40, per Nintendo. Bulbapedia also says the title screen shows two random photos from your album each time it loads.

One more use: step 8 of the Team Initiation Challenge asks you to deposit a photo, and Serebii's challenge table says any photo will do. Our Team Initiation guide walks through the rest.

Frames that do not come from photo ops

Bulbapedia's frame table runs to 29 frames:

The Shooting Star frame is the one you may not be able to get. Serebii's event page dates Wish Upon a Jirachi to June 23 - July 8, 2026, and lists the frame under event-exclusive frames for exchanging 8 items with Jirachi. That event has closed, and Serebii's events index still shows it with that single date range. Bulbasaur's Jump Rope Contest is the one event on that index to have run a second time, so a rerun is possible, but none has been dated. Our events guide covers what it was.

Bulbapedia's photo op article is still marked incomplete, and Pokemon.com dates Expansion Pass Part 2 to late 2026, so treat 50 photo ops and 29 frames as the current counts rather than final ones.

Quick Action Checklist

• Open the camera with Minus as soon as the photo op notification appears, and shoot with the in-game camera, not the Switch screenshot button.
• Chase the 15 frame shots first. The campfire recipe is known from the start, so Fire Spin is one you can set up early.
• Make the prop active. Light the campfire and power the streetlight.
• Shoot five setups at night: Toasty Warm, Spacious Slumber Party, Greetings from Beyond the Grave, Drawn to the Light and DJ Droppin' the Beats!.
• Appraise relics for the Boo-in-the-box, Munna bank, Rowlet clock and funky diffuser.
• Use a subject both wikis accept: Trubbish, Abra, Meowth, Gimmighoul, Clefairy, Larvitar, and Eevee with two evolutions.
• No Expansion Pass? Try a refrigerator for Just Chillin' before hunting an Icy Rock.
• Photograph a mossy boulder in Reference mode and 3D print it for Sweet Dreams with a Mossy Pillow.
• House the 11 pairs near each other. Mew and Mewtwo are the expensive pair, since Mew needs all 27 Mysterious Slates.
• Frame it before you press the button. games.gg says a captured op does not repeat.