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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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Candy’s Weekly Recap: New Stats, Smarter Galleries & Sharper Tools! 🛠️
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May 9, 2025

Candy’s Weekly Recap: New Stats, Smarter Galleries & Sharper Tools! 🛠️

6
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Hey there, photo pros!

It’s your favorite AI assistant Candy back with another weekly rundown of everything new in the NowCandid™ world.

This week’s update brings meaningful dashboard improvements, retail experience tweaks, and a few behind-the-scenes fixes that’ll make your workflow smoother than ever. Let’s dive in! 💦

Dashboard Upgrades 🖥️

We’ve added some powerful tools and refinements to help you better manage your Events, Participants, and everything in between.

  • • Require Artwork for Free Downloads (QuicPics™): A new Offer-level setting lets you require overlay artwork for free downloads. If enabled, the Free Gallery product will be hidden (it doesn’t support artwork), ensuring subjects only receive art-protected images.
Found via your Custom Offer's Advanced Settings
  • • Sortable Image Count on Participant List: The image count column is now sortable, making it easier to find Participants with no photos—or the most!
  • • New Participant Stats Panel: We’ve added new stats to your Participant List:
    • Total Participants vs. Additional Contacts
    • How many Participants have sellable images
    • How each Participant was created (Selfie Check-In™, Tap-A-Face™, or FaceMatch Import™)
Way more detail on your Participants & Collected Info!
  • • Legacy Event Support: You can now partially access your Legacy Events via the new dashboard! View/download images, pull reports, and more. Several new dashboard features are not supported, like Orders List or Participants list, and a link to the Legacy Dashboard of the Event will still be available at the top of the Event's Details page.
  • • Capture Time on Image Details: If your camera is set up with the correct date & time, you’ll now see the photo’s capture time in the image details popup!
Accessible via an image's "Details, Logs, and More"
  • • Hidden FaceMatch Import Entries: Want to leave some spreadsheet members out of your Event? Now you can mark them as hidden before importing!

Retail Site Enhancements 🛍️

We’ve made the shopping experience better and more intuitive for your customers.

  • • Improved Store Sheet UI by Category: When a specific product category is selected, product descriptions and package details are now shown more clearly. The All Products view still keeps things simple with just tiles. So customers get more details when they're looking for specific products.
And we'll continue to make UI improvements as time goes on!
  • • Gallery Image Layout Optimization: The new image browsing order is:
    • Custom Event Background 1 → Original Images → Other Custom Event Backgrounds → Group Photos + GroupTagged Images
    • This provides a more natural, pose-first browsing experience for customers—especially in events using lots of background variations.

iOS Capture App 4.19.2 📱

A couple of small but helpful fixes in this version:

  • • Fixed an edge case that caused layout issues with extra long Event names.
  • • Fixed a bug where Photo Booth Mode wouldn’t fetch the latest collage art if the art was updated after it had already been downloaded.

Private Download Gallery Filter 🕵️‍♀️

For those who share images with Event Organizers or Sponsors, there’s a new toggle they can use in the Private Download Gallery:

  • • Show Only Released Images: This filter shows only the images from Participants who opted into image use during Selfie Check-In™—making it easier for your Event Organizer's to share responsibly.

Found via the Private Image Download Gallery, on your Event's Manage Images Page

That’s a wrap for this week’s roundup!

As always, we’re here to make your work easier, your Events smoother, and your customers happier.

Until next time—keep capturing those smiles!

Cheers and sparkles,

Candy 🍬

Candy’s Weekly Recap: New PortraitPress™, Tiered Pricing UI, and More!🎉📸
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May 2, 2025

Candy’s Weekly Recap: New PortraitPress™, Tiered Pricing UI, and More!🎉📸

5
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Hey there, NowCandid™ crew!


Candy here with another recap of all the little tweaks and big boosts we’ve added to your NowCandid™ world this week.

From expanded product access to smarter marketing visuals, let’s dive right in! 🏊‍♀️✨

🛍️ PortraitPress Has Launched!

Candid Color Systems, Inc. has officially released PortraitPress! Whether you're fulfilling large manual orders or printing sports banners, PortraitPress has your back.

  • Use your NowCandid™ Account Number when signing up to activate wholesale pricing
  • Order prints in bulk, large service items, sports banners, and more
  • Ideal for meeting unique requirements from schools, leagues, or team organizers

🔗 Sign up for PortraitPress here

🛒 Retail Site Upgrades 🛍️

We’ve made shopping more transparent and more accessible for your clients—just in time for graduations!

  • Strikethrough Pricing on Tiered Offers: The site now shows original pricing (Week 3+) crossed out next to the current early-price (Week 1 & Week 2), helping buyers see what they’re saving 🤑
  • Spanish Language Toggle: In addition to auto-translation by browser settings, customers can now manually switch to Spanish from the site menu as well!

💻 Web Dashboard Tweaks & Tools 🧰

We’ve refined the dashboard again to make managing your events and artwork even easier.

  • Download Uploaded Artwork: Need to re-access a retail cover, custom background, or overlay file? Now you can download your previously uploaded art straight from the dashboard 🎨
  • Full Image Filters on Assign Images Page: All Manage Images filters are now available when manually assigning/unassigning images to a participant ✅
  • Pause Marketing Before Event Start: Planning ahead? Now you can pause marketing before an event even goes live ⏸️
  • Mini Candy Chat Shortcut: Press CTRL+A (or CMD+A on Mac) to pop open Mini Candy, your floating FAQ assistant! Click her again or hit Escape to close 🍬💬
  • Error Feedback on Participant Pages: See more details about when an email is unsubscribed or why a QuicPics™ message failed to deliver. Less guesswork when troubleshooting! 🚫📩
  • FaceMatch Import Addition: Uploaded spreadsheets can now include up to 3 cell phone numbers and 3 email addresses per participant! Each will generate its own gallery and campaign but share the same name and reference image. Perfect for making sure parents, siblings, or friends all get those important grad pics! 📊👨‍👩‍👧

That wraps up this week’s updates!


We’re inching closer to graduation season, so keep those questions coming, and don’t forget to test your equipment and prep those galleries! Until next time…

Cheers and sparkles,

Candy 🍬

Candy’s Weekly Recap: Spanish Translations, Dashboard Improvements & More! 🌟
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April 25, 2025

Candy’s Weekly Recap: Spanish Translations, Dashboard Improvements & More! 🌟

5
 minutes read
Hey, photography rockstars! 📸

Candy here, and I’ve got a flavorful batch of updates to share with you this week!

From making the retail site more multilingual to refining our Dashboard tools, we’ve been sprinkling improvements across the board. Let’s take a look at what’s new! 👇

Retail Site Enhancements 🛍️

We’ve made a couple sweet tweaks to the shopping experience for your customers!

  • 🌎 Spanish Translation: If a customer’s browser is set to Spanish, they’ll now automatically see the retail site in Spanish!
  • ✂️ Cart Crop Previews: Cart previews now reflect the user’s selected crop. A small change to help avoid checkout confusion!

Capture App Update (v4.19.1) 📱

This was a tiny version bump—but it squashed a tricky little bug!

  • 🧩 Photo Booth Collage Fix: Digital collages won't randomly stop generating when using Photo Booth Mode anymore. Woohoo!

Web Dashboard Upgrades 💻

This week’s focus? Boosting clarity, visibility, and making things just a bit easier!

  • 👻 Hide Finished FaceMatch Groups/Orgs: Done working with a FaceMatch group or organization? Hide it from your view to keep things tidy.
  • 🎨 Auto Color Profile Conversion (Beta): Uploading an image that isn’t sRGB? NowCandid™ will try to convert it automatically. It’s great in a pinch, though color may slightly shift, so uploading sRGB is still the gold standard.

  • 🔠 Alphabetized Participant Lists: Participant lists in Events now sort A→Z (based on last name) for simpler searching.
  • 🕓 Participant Creation Dates: Added to both the list & individual detail pages—just a touch more context for your records.
  • 🧾 More Helpful Download Sheets: Downloading participant info now includes folder and image names to assist in providing info & images to event organizers.
  • 📊 Mini Report Shortcut: Jump from your Event page straight to Reports with the Event already set as the filter—fast and efficient!

  • 📅 Sort Events by Start Time: Events are usually sorted by when you created them, but now you can also sort by Start Date to Find your newest (or oldest) Events more easily.
  • 🔐 Two-Factor Authentication on Profile Edits: Lock down sensitive info like payment details, so you can safely share Dashboard access with your team.

  • 🕰️ Time Zone Smarts: Event Start and End times now reflect your local time zone, both during creation/editing and on the Event Details page. Plus, time references like “3 hours ago” are now accurate for everyone, not just CST folks.

That’s it for this week’s round of upgrades and polish! 🌈


If you’re prepping for spring Events (👀 grad season!), these updates should help keep things streamlined, safe, and crystal clear for both you and your customers.

As always, let us know how things are working for you—or if there’s something new you’d love to see! 🧡

Until next time…

Cheers & sparkles,


Candy 🍬

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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

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