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Crowning Moments: Turning Prom Night into Profit with NowCandid

Crowning Moments: Turning Prom Night into Profit with NowCandid
Prom night is an iconic milestone in a high schooler’s life, brimming with fashion, friendships, and unforgettable memories.

While it's true that smartphones have made "everyone a photographer", professional prom photography remains a lucrative venture. Why? The answer lies in the quality that professional photos can offer, capturing prom night with a finesse that smartphones simply can't match.

The Profitability of Prom Photography

Prom photography can be highly profitable, with a target metric of $1.50 per image being a realistic benchmark for success. However, with the right approach, this figure can soar, as evidenced by a NowCandid's users Oklahoma City Prom, which achieved $2 per image across 3000 pictures taken, totaling $6000 in sales.

The key to serious profitability lies in having quantity, quality, and variety! An effective photographer using NowCandid has the ability to quickly deliver a professional, high-quality image gallery that will capture the attention of their subjects.

Why Proms are Still Profitable

  1. Social Media Influence: Today’s high schoolers live in a social media-centric world where the quality of a photo can greatly increase the quality of a post. Professional, well-lit, and expertly framed photos are in demand for their social media feeds, making them willing to purchase digital copies for their Instagram or Facebook profiles.
  2. Parental Investment: Parents are equally important customers in the prom photography market. They cherish these milestones and are often more than willing to purchase photos that capture their child’s special night. Using Selfie Check-In allows you to collect both the subject and the parents' contact info, marketing the subject's photos to both parties!
  3. Speedy Delivery: With the help of NowCandid, images can be available for purchase instantly. Selling images right away can benefit your overall sales thanks to impulse purchases people make when they are at their most excited about the Event.
  4. Unique Print Products: Unique print products alongside desirable images is always a combination that will generate extra sales! A variety of products be purchased, in addition to the usual prints and downloads. You can even upload an Event-specific custom banner to your Events to further make your product unique compared to the images subjects can take with their own phones - turning every photo into a memento!

Keys to Successful Prom Photography

  • Quality: While taking a substantial number of photos is important, ensuring the quality of your images increases their salability. Ensure each photo is well-lit and tightly cropped!
  • 2 Pics Per Minute: Aim for 2 pictures every minute, targeting 120+ per hour. These need to be unique images too - don't count duplicates! Utilize features like NowCandid’s LiveLoop to encourage guests to seek out photographers to get on the big screen.
  • Posing: Encourage a variety of poses to maximize the number of sellable images for any group you approach. After photographing a group of four, break the group into couples, ladies only, guys only, etc.
  • Photo Stations: Establish a dedicated photo area with an attractive backdrop suitable for individuals, couples, and groups, enhancing the variety and appeal of a subject's image gallery. Props are optional, but can be a fun addition. Also, a photo station is also a good place to station your less-social photographers, as guests will come to them!
  • Selfie Check-In Mastery: Achieving high participation in Selfie Check-In not only streamlines image delivery but also ensures a direct marketing channel to both students and their parents.
  • Strategic Staffing: Align the number of photographers with the expected guest count, aiming for one photographer per 100-150 guests to ensure comprehensive coverage of the event.
  • Strategic Compensation: Many successful social photographers pay their photographers based on how many unique (no duplicates) and sellable (good quality) images they take at a party. Consider paying $0.20 per sellable image with a minimum pay of $18 an hour, guaranteeing them decent pay but giving them room to take more images to make you both more money. (Example: 120 images an hour would be $24 an hour)

NowCandid: Your Partner in Capturing the Magic of Prom Night

NowCandid software is designed to streamline the photography process, from efficient image capture and upload to simplifying sales through intuitive galleries and easy online ordering.

With NowCandid, photographers can focus on what they do best—taking stunning photos—while the platform handles the logistics, making each prom a potential goldmine of photographic opportunities.

Success Stories to Inspire

Photographers like Tosha LaForest and Eric Miller have harnessed the power of NowCandid to amplify their school dance and event photography sales. Their experiences underscore the potential of well-executed prom and dance photography to significantly boost revenue and client satisfaction.

Prom photography, powered by NowCandid, offers a great option for photographers to expand their portfolios and profit margins. By focusing on quality, variety, and quantity, photographers can tap into the lucrative prom market, turning each dance into a profitable venture (and fun) venture.

Learn more, and join the ranks of successful prom photographers with NowCandid.

Visit our success stories to learn more and get inspired to capture the vibrant energy and timeless elegance of prom night.

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Weekly Recap: New Unified Sidebar, Valentine’s Theme & Pano Updates 🍬❤️
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Weekly Recap: New Unified Sidebar, Valentine’s Theme & Pano Updates 🍬❤️

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Hey photo friends! 👋


Big week. We’ve rolled out a brand-new unified Sidebar, added new pano options, improved Dashboard speed, and dropped a Valentine’s-ready retail theme.

Let’s break it down.

🧭 New Unified Sidebar (Desktop + Mobile)

The Dashboard navigation just got a major upgrade.

🖥️📱 One unified sidebar across desktop and mobile

  • No more different layouts depending on device. Navigation is now consistent everywhere.

🔎 “Sidebar Find” (press F to search)

  • The old command palette is now built into the Sidebar.
  • Press F and start typing to jump anywhere.

🍬 Candy Navigation Assistant

  • If no results are found, Candy will try to take you where you meant to go!

👀 Previously hidden items (like Extras) are now much easier to find.

This is one of the biggest usability upgrades we’ve shipped in a while!

🖼️ Panoramic Updates

🖨️ New 24×8 Panoramic Print (non-group version)

  • In addition to the group-only pano lineup, there’s now a non-group 24×8 option.

🏷️ Existing panos renamed to “X Group Print”

  • Makes it clearer which pano products are group-only.

🧱 Extreme aspect ratio images (1:3 or 3:1)

  • These are now limited to Panoramic Print products only.

🧼 Fixed banner artwork incorrectly appearing on pano products in the store sheet.

🛍️ Retail Improvements

Much faster initial image grid rendering

✨ Removed quick “No Images” flash during load

🎨 Fixed “View Images” hero button text being too dark on some themes

✂️ Crop size checker now correctly respects orientation for large-format products

💕 New SweetHearts Theme (Valentine’s Ready)

💖 SweetHearts retail theme released

🎉 Includes custom heart confetti at checkout

Just in time for Valentine’s Day sessions!

🖥️ Dashboard Improvements

🌾 Candy Culler upgrades

  • Can now set an entire filter to visible or invisible (except duplicates)
  • No longer also culls PhotoRoster reference images (whoops!)

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Group Photo toggle added for Portraits Program

📂 Increased row limits for roster and PhotoRoster uploads

🛠️ Fixed overlay import not working properly

📏 Improved DPI validation on banner artwork (matching full frame improvements)

⚡ Faster requests across many areas including:

  • Profile updates
  • 2FA verification
  • Invoice loading/downloading
  • Retail settings updates
  • Bank info updates
  • Password reset emails

📱 Fixed mobile dashboard scrolling/focus issues in popups

🧾 Fixed create event occasionally not redirecting correctly

📸 Fixed QuicPics creation confirmation spam edge case

📬 Fixed unread inbox items appearing from before account creation

🔐 Security Improvements

🔒 Improved password reset security

🔑 Strengthened 2FA flows and verification handling

🤳 Selfie Check-In

🖼️ Images under 100×100 are now blocked (lab requirement enforcement)

🌀 LiveLoop

🌫️Updated backdrop blur

  • Looks better and is more performant, reducing crashes on WebKit browsers.

That’s the week!

A cleaner, unified Dashboard experience, smarter pano handling, better retail performance, and a Valentine’s-ready theme to boot.

Keep creating magic,

Candy 🍬

Weekly Recap: New 24×8 Panoramic Print, and More! 🖼️🧾
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This week is a mix of one new product and a handful of refinements across retail pricing, check-in validation, and Dashboard tools.

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🆕 New Product

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🛍️ Retail: Pricing & Editing Improvements

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  • Small change, big relief for subjects with multi-hyphenate names.

✅ Check-In Page: Better Email Validation

📧 Improved email validation

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👥 Additional Contacts now use the same validation rules

  • Makes additional contact info more typo-proof too!

🖥️ Dashboard: Fewer Snags, More Visibility

🧪 Image Tester now supports PNG files

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📏 Improved DPI validation for artwork uploads (and Image Tester)

  • Better handling for images that don’t explicitly include DPI metadata.

📦 Package editor expanded limits

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  • (Digital downloads remain capped at 16; most other items remain capped at 8).

📁 Manage Images: Folder Download fixed for large folders

  • Folders over 100 images now reliably download in multiple ZIPs (no more stopping after the first chunk).

🧾 Order Details page got a big clarity upgrade

You can now see key indicators and selections more directly, including:

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  • 🖼️ backgrounds / AI background indicators (where applicable)
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🍬 Candy Culler Improvements

📊 Results update automatically while culling runs

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🗂️ New downloadable folder report

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💬 Misc

📲 Day 0 SMS link placement updated

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Another new pano option, tighter retail pricing presentation, cleaner check-ins, and a more informative Dashboard where it counts.

Candy 🍬

Weekly Recap: New Panoramic Prints, Smarter Culling Tools & Checkout Improvements🖼️🧾
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January 23, 2026

Weekly Recap: New Panoramic Prints, Smarter Culling Tools & Checkout Improvements🖼️🧾

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Hey photo friends! 👋

Candy here with this week’s updates. Highlights include two new panoramic print products, a bunch of Manage Images + Candy Culler usability wins, and retail checkout + link preview improvements.

Let’s jump in!

🆕 New Products: Panoramic Prints (Group-Only)

🖼️ 15×5 Panoramic Print (Group-only)


🖼️ 30×10 Panoramic Print (Group-only)

These are available across both Dashboard + Retail.

Reminders:

When you flag photos as Group Photos, they will become purchasable on Group products only IF you have Group Products in your Event's Offer.

If there are NOT Group Products in your Event's Offer, then images marked as Group Photos will be purchasable on any product (including downloads).

🖥️ Dashboard: Manage Images + Candy Culler Improvements

🧰 More Tools always visible on Manage Images

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🌾 Candy Culler icon updated (axe → scythe)

👁️ Visibility toggle added right on the Cull page

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📦 Download Folder improves naming

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⌨️ CTRL/CMD+F supported on the Event PhotoTags page

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Rosters, PhotoTags & Participant Fixes

🏷️ Roster upload now accepts “PhotoTags” column header

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🧩 PhotoTag filtering fixed on Participant List + Participant Details

  • Especially in edge cases where a later-merged record had the PhotoTag but the initial record didn’t.

📇 PhotoRoster Data Upload now supports 3 Additional Contacts (up from 2)

🧾 Image Release Gallery fixes

  • Face count edge cases resolved (duplicates/additional contacts/duplicate submissions)
  • Program filter fixed

🛍️ Retail: Checkout & Sharing Improvements

🧾 Improved checkout backend

  • Includes protections to reduce the edge case of double charges during backend disruptions.

🔗 Link previews fixed for non-QuicPics events

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🛡️ GalleryGuard enabled when watermark opacity is 0%

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🌀 LiveLoop™ Fixes

🧠 Fixed out-of-memory crashing sometimes for LiveLoops with artwork renders

🖼️ Fixed artwork sometimes disappearing after LiveLoop runs for a long time

⚡ Performance & UI Fixes (Small but Helpful)

🚀 Offer list + Event Details load a bit faster

👤 Some profile actions are faster (passcode changes, retail settings, account data used by PhotoCoach / PortraitPress popups)

🧩 Fixed some Participant Details pages not loading

🖼️ Fixed Manage Images lightbox details getting out of sync when using arrow keys

🧷 Fixed Manage Images scrolling to the top when toggling visibility

🔑 Fixed Forgot Password page not sending email

📦 Offer Creator: New “À La Carte” Package Breakdown

🧮 New “À La Carte” section inside packages shows:

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  • The package discount a shopper is getting (shows 0% if discount would be negative)

Note / Feature-Preview: In the near future, this will also be expanded to better highlight savings on packages on the retail site to your customers, automatically!

✅ Misc + Check-In Improvement

💬 Text campaigns weekend test: recurring (non-day-0) texts will now place the retail link at the very end to encourage link previews.

🤳 Selfie Check-In reliability improvements

That’s the week!

New panoramic prints, smoother culling, better retail reliability, and a bunch of cleanup that should make day-to-day usage feel tighter.

Keep creating magic,

Candy 🍬

Let’s get in touch

If you’re a photographer looking to add NowCandid services to your wheelhouse – set up a call by clicking the button below.

How to customize formatting for each rich text

How to customize formatting for each rich text

How to customize formatting for each rich text

How to customize formatting for each rich text

How to customize formatting for each rich text
How to customize formatting for each rich text

What’s a Rich Text element?

The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.

A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.

  • List One
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This is a link

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