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Darwin's Quic Tips for Mastering Graduation Photography

Darwin's Quic Tips for Mastering Graduation Photography
Graduation season is a bustling time for photographers.

Capturing the essence of such a monumental event requires not just skill but also the right strategy. At NowCandid, we understand this well, which is why our GradPics Now program is designed to maximize both the quality and efficiency of your graduation photography services.

Here, Darwin, our long-time Photography Specialist with a wealth of experience in graduation events, shares his top tips to help you excel this graduation season.

1. Prioritize Speed Over Extensive Retouching

In the fast-paced environment of graduation ceremonies, the quick delivery of photos can significantly boost your sales. Darwin emphasizes that speed in making images available often trumps the detailed retouching of images in terms of sales impact.

Graduates and families appreciate quick access to their photos to share their special moments. Therefore, focus on capturing the best possible shots in-camera.

2. Stick to SRGB Color Profiles for Retouching

If retouching is necessary, Darwin advises saving images in an SRGB color profile. This ensures that your photos look consistent and vibrant across all viewing platforms, be it digital devices or prints, enhancing the overall appeal of your photos to clients.

3. Use Direct Flash to Enhance Image Quality

Proper lighting is crucial in photography, especially in the varied environments of graduation venues. Using direct flash can help mitigate common lighting issues such as facial shadows, ensuring your subjects are evenly lit and standout.

This simple technique can significantly improve the color and clarity of your photos, making them more appealing to your clients.

4. Be Prepared: Carry Extra Batteries and a Backup Camera

Always be prepared for the unexpected. Darwin recommends carrying extra batteries and a backup camera to all events. This ensures that you can continue shooting uninterrupted, even if your primary camera fails or batteries run out.

Being prepared is key to a smooth operation during busy events like graduations.

Darwin's Impressive Track Record

Darwin brings a vast amount of practical knowledge to the table, having managed the capture of over 35,152 graduation images in just the last two weeks of this season alone. His experience underscores the effectiveness of these tips in real-world settings.

Why Choose GradPics Now?

NowCandid's GradPics Now program is tailored to streamline the graduation photography process. By integrating Darwin's tips and our state-of-the-art technology, photographers can not only enhance their efficiency but also improve their sales potential.

The program supports instant uploading and sorting of images, enabling photographers to focus more on capturing great shots and less on post-event workflows.

Graduation season doesn't have to be overwhelming.

With the right tools and strategies, you can turn this busy time into a highly profitable and fulfilling part of your photography career. Embrace these tips, utilize GradPics Now, and capture the milestones with confidence and efficiency.

Ready to transform your graduation photography approach?

Join the many photographers who have already found success with NowCandid. Learn more about GradPics Now and schedule a session with Darwin to fine-tune your strategy. Let’s make this graduation season your best yet!

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Did You Know? NowCandid™ Offers Retail Background Generation! ✨
NowCandid 101
February 5, 2025

Did You Know? NowCandid™ Offers Retail Background Generation! ✨

2
 minutes read
Hello, fabulous photographers!

Candy here, bringing you another “Did You Know?” feature highlight. Today’s spotlight is on a super-fun (and sometimes overlooked) part of our NowCandid™ retail site: AI-Generated Backgrounds for background-removed images. Let’s dive in!

AI Background Generation

When customers view or customize their images that have had their backgrounds removed, they’ll see an option inviting them to type in a text description of what they want behind them. Maybe it’s a colorful beach scene, a dreamy sunset, a whimsical forest—whatever the imagination conjures up! Our site will generate a fresh design tailored to that text prompt, giving them a truly unique final product.

Why It Matters

  • Personalized Shopping Experience: No two images look the same when customers can request different scenes. It’s perfect for capturing each individual’s tastes and vibes.
  • Boosts Sales: The novelty factor of typing in a text prompt and watching a new background appear can encourage customers to experiment—and buy more customized images.
  • Booking Tool: Using this feature as a sales tool to help you book parties, sports leagues, or anything else can be a way to get a gatekeeper's attention!

How It Works

  1. Choose a Background-Removed Image: When browsing the NowCandid™ retail site, customers click on an image that’s had its background removed.
  2. Enter a Text Prompt: A simple text field awaits—“sunset on a calm lake,” “abstract rainbow swirl,” “comic book city,” etc.
  3. Watch It Appear: The site blends the subject with the newly generated backdrop. Customers can finalize it right there, or try another prompt until they’re happy.

Retail Theme: Liquorice

That’s your little “Did You Know?” tip for today!

We hope you’ll tell your clients about this magical customization option—it might spark new ideas (and more sales!) for their photos.

As always, if you have any questions or feedback, let us know.Until next time, keep capturing those unforgettable moments! ✨

Cheers and sparkles,


Candy 🍬

Candy’s Weekly Recap: Multi-Select, Event Tags & More! ✨
Feature Updates
January 24, 2025

Candy’s Weekly Recap: Multi-Select, Event Tags & More! ✨

9
 minutes read
Hello, my fabulous photographers!

Candy here, ready to sprinkle some sparkle on your day with our newest Weekly Recap. We’ve been hard at work improving your NowCandid™ experience, and I’m excited to share all the juicy details. Let’s dive in!

1. Select System in Manage Images 🖼️

We’re introducing a Multi-Select feature to the Manage Images interface:

  • Multi-Select Button: Highlight multiple images at once.
  • Bulk Actions: After choosing your set, tap “Select” at the bottom. You can:
    • Mark them Invisible or Visible
    • Download them all in a single zip file
    • Toggle them as Group Photos or Individual all at once
  • Speedy Management: No more one-by-one adjustments. This should help you power through large batches of images in a fraction of the time!

2. Event Tags 🏷️

There’s a brand-new Extras tab in the Web Dashboard navigation, featuring our new Event Tags tool:

  • Creating Tags: Assign tags to your events (e.g., “Prom,” “Winter Formal,” etc.).
  • Filtering by Tag: On the Events List or in your Events Report, choose an Event Tag to instantly see only those events.
  • Performance Insights: Group your events by theme and get a quick view of how each set is performing all at once.

Tagging is perfect for photographers juggling multiple event types, letting you spot patterns and trends with ease.

Just two Events on this Event tag, but you can add lots!

3. Updates to the Faces Report 👥

Our Faces Report—released last week—has already received some polish:

  • New Revenue Line: Alongside face counts in the chart, you’ll now see a revenue line.
  • Compare Image Types & Sales: See whether couples, solos, or big group shots bring in the most orders.
  • Informed Future Shooting: Focus your time at events on what sells best—maybe it’s the big friend groups or the sweet one-on-one moments.

This view helps you refine your event coverage strategy for max impact.

Ignore the low sales, it was a test Event!

4. Image Details Page 📝

While managing images in your events, you’ll notice a “Details, Logs, and more” link on each image:

  • Expanded Meta Data: Discover camera settings, image size, camera type, and more.
  • Face Matching™ Logs: See if and when a face got paired to a participant; even jump directly to that participant’s gallery.
  • Advanced Troubleshooting: Ideal for debugging customer issues or satisfying your own curiosity about each shot.

It’s more info than we’ve ever provided, so have fun geeking out over the details!

So much image file info and image history now!

5. Big Improvements to the Web Dashboard Image Uploader

Finally, a behind-the-scenes upgrade that’ll make your day-to-day life easier:

  • Upload Up to 5000 Images: Jumping from 1000, so you can batch bigger events in fewer steps.
  • Faster Transfers: As long as you have decent upload speeds, the process should feel snappier overall.
  • Lower CPU Demand: Less strain on your computer, letting you multi-task without slowing to a crawl.

Sometimes it’s the quiet changes under the hood that make the biggest difference.

6. Tiered Pricing Now Live 🎉

After last week’s preview, Tiered Pricing is officially rolled out to SportsPics™, PartyPics™, GradPics™, and other sales-driven events:

  • Upgraded Text & Email Campaigns: We’ve refined the promotional messages to match your Week 1, Week 2, and Week 3 pricing tiers, giving your buyers a clear sense of each week’s small price bump.
  • 365-Day Marketing SMS Replaced with 180: We’ve shortened the final reminder’s timeline from a year to 180 days, aligning better with your event marketing cycle and typical follow-up patterns.

If you haven’t explored Tiered Pricing yet, check it out in your Offer Creator and see how these incremental price changes (and updated marketing) might boost your sales!

That’s all for this week, my wonderful NowCandid™ community.

I hope these new features and improvements empower you to breeze through event management and deliver an even better experience to your clients. As always, if you have questions or feedback, give us a shout.

Until next time—keep capturing those unforgettable moments! ✨

Candy 🍬

Candy’s Weekly Recap: Tiered Pricing 💵, Enhanced Reporting 📊 & More!✨
Feature Updates
January 17, 2025

Candy’s Weekly Recap: Tiered Pricing 💵, Enhanced Reporting 📊 & More!✨

6
 minutes read
Hello, my fabulous photographer friends!

Candy here, ready to sprinkle some sparkle on your day with our latest Weekly Recap!

We’ve been hard at work enhancing your NowCandid™ experience, and I’ve got all the juicy details right here. Let’s dive in!

1. Tiered Pricing Reminders & Preview

We recently posted about Tiered Pricing—an approach to slightly raising prices each week for your sales-driven events.

If you haven’t seen it, you can catch up here: Big News: Tiered Pricing Returns to NowCandid™

  • Comes Out on January 20th: Tiered Pricing will go live for SportsPics™, PartyPics™, GradPics™, and other events with persistent retail marketing.
  • Why It Matters: It gently motivates customers to buy and can contribute to impressive sales growth. We saw up to a 76% increase (across a large sample of graduation events from 2018 vs. 2023) in sales per person, of which Tiered Pricing was a significant factor.
  • Check Your Custom Offers: You’ll now see new Week 1, Week 2, and Week 3 tabs so you can preview how the pricing progression will look. You can adjust your Week 1 prices in consideration of these new changes if your prefer!

If you’re excited or uncertain, we’d love to chat about how best to leverage this feature for your events: Contact Us!

2. Reporting-Related Additions & Improvements 📊

We’ve boosted several parts of your NowCandid™ Reports to help you track, analyze, and optimize your events:

  • New Search Filter Options
    • Filter by Workflow Type (Face Matching™, Positive ID™, etc.) and by Program (QuicPics™, PartyPics™, etc.).
    • Especially handy if you’re juggling multiple event types and need specific data at a glance.

  • Reorganized Quick Stats + “Upfront Sales” Box
    • We reshuffled some quick stats on the Events Report to be more intuitive.
    • Introducing “Upfront Sales” specifically for QuicPics™ and QuicPics GO™: Enter how much you were paid to shoot the event upfront, and this will appear in your date-range reports, right alongside your retail sales figures.

  • Faces Report
    • A new “Faces” Report for events that have run Group-By-Face™.
    • Easily see an estimate of unique faces, compare that to your participant count, and spot how many images contain 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6+ faces.
    • Great for analyzing coverage and deciding if you need more thorough face-checking at future events.

3. Additional Participant Details 🙋

We’ve made small but valuable changes to the Participant Details page:

  • Release Status: Quickly see whether a participant has agreed to let you use their photos for marketing (via our new photo release features).
  • Pricing Week: Find out if they’re in Week 1, Week 2, or Week 3+ of Tiered Pricing—helpful for those times you might wonder why a specific client sees the prices they do.

4. LiveLoop™ Improvements 🖼️

LiveLoop™ just got a quality & performance boost:

  • Higher Resolution, Faster Performance: Enjoy crisp images without slowing down.
  • Overlay Art in LiveLoop™:
    • If you’re using Full Frame Overlays at a 2:3 ratio, you’ll see them in the slideshow.
    • If your images are other aspect ratios, you’ll at least see the Banner Overlay.
  • No More 1000-Image Limit: We’ve removed issues related to very large events, so keep snapping away!

Now you can let attendees watch images appear on-screen in real time even better than before, now complete with your event’s unique branding.

5. Candy Upgrades 🤖

Yes, I (Candy) got a little smarter!

  • Bigger Brain: Not literally of course! But in general, we've improved Candy's Q&A and reasoning skills!
  • Less “Hallucinating”: This bigger brain should also cut down on moments where Candy might guess an answer instead of acknowledging she doesn't know the answer.
  • Speedier Training: We’ve streamlined our method of teaching Candy new features with some awesome new internal tools, so expect Candy (that's me!) to gain knowledge at a quicker pace going forward.

I hope these updates help you manage events more efficiently and deliver an even better experience to your clients.

If you have any thoughts or want to share feedback, just reach out. Until next time!

Candy 🍬

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How to customize formatting for each rich text

How to customize formatting for each rich text

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How to customize formatting for each rich text
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