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Capturing the Champions of Tomorrow: A Guide to Youth Sports Photography Portrait Shoots and Team Photos

Capturing the Champions of Tomorrow: A Guide to Youth Sports Photography Portrait Shoots and Team Photos

Youth sports photography is all about capturing the energy, passion, and camaraderie of young athletes as they embark on their journey to greatness. In this blog post, we'll share tips for getting started in youth sports portrait photography and team photos, and how NowCandid can help you achieve success in this exciting niche.

  1. Build Trust and Rapport with Athletes and Their Families:
    Young athletes may be nervous or shy in front of the camera, so it's essential to build trust and rapport with them and their families. Communicate openly, listen to their preferences, and share your enthusiasm for their achievements. Remember, your role as a photographer is to create a fun, positive experience for all involved.
  2. Choose the Right Location and Background:
    Select a location that showcases the sport's essence and complements the athletes' uniforms and team colors. Opt for natural settings such as fields or courts, or use a portable backdrop for a clean, professional look. Ensure the background is uncluttered and free from distractions to keep the focus on the young athletes.
  3. Master the Art of Posing and Composition:
    Like a superhero assembling their squad, guide your subjects into flattering and dynamic poses that showcase their personality and athleticism. Experiment with individual and group poses, ensuring each athlete's face and uniform are visible. Use a mix of traditional and creative compositions to create a diverse and visually engaging portfolio.
  4. Utilize Natural Light and Flash Techniques:
    Youth sports portrait photography often takes place outdoors, so make the most of natural light. Shoot during the golden hour for soft, warm lighting, and use a reflector to bounce light onto your subjects. For indoor shoots, invest in a portable flash kit to create well-lit, professional-looking images.
  5. Offer Customized Products and Packages:
    Offer a range of customizable products and packages to appeal to various clients and budgets. From prints and digital files to keychains and plaques, showcase your photos on a wide variety of products to provide a valuable service for your clients.
  6. Partner with NowCandid to Streamline Your Business:
    As Doc Brown from "Back to the Future" once said, "The future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one." NowCandid's powerful platform helps you make that good future for yourself. It can do a lot for youth sports photographers, like streamline their workflow, handle customer support, deal with all order fulfillment, and boost sales. By integrating NowCandid into your business, you can focus on capturing the champions of tomorrow while enjoying a seamless and efficient process from start to finish.

Youth sports portrait photography offers a unique opportunity to capture the passion and determination of young athletes as they strive for greatness. By following these tips and harnessing the power of NowCandid, you'll be well on your way to building a successful career in this exciting and rewarding niche. Now, go forth and capture the future legends of the sports world!

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Weekly Recap: Candy Image Studio Upgrades, Participant Search & QR Creator 🍬✨
Feature Updates
February 27, 2026

Weekly Recap: Candy Image Studio Upgrades, Participant Search & QR Creator 🍬✨

4
 minutes read
Hey photo friends! 👋

This week is packed with tools you’ll probably use right away: big upgrades to Candy Image Studio, a brand-new Participant Search across all events, and a fun but practical QR Creator.

Let’s dive in.

🎨 Candy Image Studio: More Control, More Power

We’ve made some meaningful upgrades to Candy Image Studio:

👁️ Choose whether to mark the original image invisible

  • Previously, edits always hid the original. Now it’s your call.

🗂️ Multiple edits can coexist

  • Uploading multiple AI edits of the same image no longer overwrites previous ones.

🧠 New safety agent

  • Automatically checks for edits involving race/ethnicity/skin tone changes or nudity to keep things appropriate.

🖼️ Generate 2K or 4K outputs

  • 4K is recommended for images with text.

Image Lightbox Integration

  • Click “Candy Image Studio” directly from an image lightbox to preload it into the Studio.
  • You can optionally mark the original invisible, and it keeps all participant associations intact for the new image (just like cutouts).

If you haven't checked out the AI editor, give it a try!

🔎 New: Participant Search Across All Events

You can now search participants across your entire account:

  • Search by name or contact info
  • Access via Tools & More, Sidebar Search bar, or "/participants" directly in the URL
  • Supports Candy navigation

Huge time-saver when you can’t remember or don't know which event someone was in.

Click here to jump to the Tools & More page

🔳 New Tool: QR Creator

Found under Tools & More, the new QR Creator lets you:

  • Paste in any link (event, check-in, retail, etc.)
  • Customize shape and colors
  • Generate something nicer than a plain black-and-white square
  • Download the new, cuter QR code!

Simple, but useful for signage, flyers, and booths.

https://app.nowcandid.com/tools/qr

📱 Mobile Dashboard Improvements

🔄 Swipe down to refresh any page (no app update needed, just refresh)

↔️ Swipe left/right in image lightboxes to move between images (desktop users already have arrow keys)

🍬 Overall improved Candy experience on mobile

🖥️ Dashboard Improvements

📂 PhotoRoster upload limit increased to 10,000 members

🏷️ PhotoTag assignment via Edit Folder fixed (won’t remove all tags unless you choose “None”)

👤 Create Participant button re-enabled (shows warning if event is older than 60 days; roster import still disabled for older events)

⚡ Faster event list search for accounts with many events

🖼️ Event cover photo now visually anchors the Event Details & Tags pages

🧾 Fixed overlay import not working properly

🔔 Fixed toast notifications appearing behind popups

🌾 Candy Culler Duplicate detection improvement

  • When using “Duplicates Only” in Candy Culler, duplicates now appear side-by-side for easier reviewing.

🛍️ Retail Improvements

📄 Fixed pagination buttons requiring page jump to function

🏈 Improved Jersey Jotter search speed/performance

🌀 LiveLoop Fixes

🛠️ Fixed certain events stopping after running for awhile

📢 Fixed not being able to upload advertisements

💸 Shipping Update

📦 5×7 Statuette shipping cost reduced thanks to a new shipping method for that product

  • From $7.25 → $3.25 (about 55% lower)

That’s the week!

Bigger AI editing control, faster participant lookup, custom QR codes, and a lighter shipping cost on 5×7 Statuettes.

Keep creating magic,

Candy 🍬

Weekly Recap: New Unified Sidebar, Valentine’s Theme & Pano Updates 🍬❤️
Feature Updates
February 13, 2026

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

4
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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! 🖼️🧾
Feature Updates
January 30, 2026

Weekly Recap: New 24×8 Panoramic Print, and More! 🖼️🧾

3
 minutes read
Hey photo friends! 👋


This week is a mix of one new product and a handful of refinements across retail pricing, check-in validation, and Dashboard tools.

Here’s what changed.

🆕 New Product

🖼️ 24×8 Panoramic Print (Group-only)

  • A new panoramic option in the same aspect ratio as the other pano prints, built for team and group shots. (Like the others, it’s group-only.)

🛍️ Retail: Pricing & Editing Improvements

💸 Package “slashed” pricing corrected and standardized

  • Fixes around week 2/3 slash amounts so package comparisons are more accurate and consistent (including cases where tiered pricing is disabled on Quic events).

✍️ Captions editor now allows hyphens and periods

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

✅ Check-In Page: Better Email Validation

📧 Improved email validation

  • Now also requires at least one period
  • Now blocks obvious typos like addresses ending in “.con”
  • These are in addition to previously existing "catches" we had in place to help customers avoid typos

👥 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

  • Helpful for validating cutouts and art files.

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

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

📦 Package editor expanded limits

  • You can now include up to 16 4×6 and 5×7 prints in a package
  • (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:

  • ✨ product finish/overlay indicators
  • 🖼️ backgrounds / AI background indicators (where applicable)
  • 📝 captions and chosen colors
  • ⬇️ background downloads working correctly again

🍬 Candy Culler Improvements

📊 Results update automatically while culling runs

  • As progress changes, search results refresh so culled images can appear without you manually refreshing.

🗂️ New downloadable folder report

  • Quick export alongside the toggle for easier review/sharing.

💬 Misc

📲 Day 0 SMS link placement updated

  • The retail link now appears after the unsubscribe text to encourage better MMS link previews.

That’s the week!

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

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
  • List Two
  • List Three
  • List Four
  • List Five

This is a link

This is bold text