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Prom Night Profits: How to Rock Prom Photography in the Age of Smartphones

Prom Night Profits: How to Rock Prom Photography in the Age of Smartphones

Prom night is a rite of passage, filled with teenage dreams, extravagant dresses, and Insta-worthy moments. But as a photographer, you might be wondering if prom photography is still a profitable gig in the era of smartphones and selfies. Fear not, fellow camera enthusiasts! With a few clever strategies and the help of NowCandid's Party Pics Now program, you can turn prom night into a money-making opportunity. So, grab your camera and let's dive into the world of prom photography!

  1. Adapt and Thrive:
    The rise of smartphones has indeed changed the game, but savvy photographers can adapt by focusing on what they do best: capturing high-quality, professional images. Offer your clients a mix of posed pictures and candid shots, using the Selfie Check-In and Tap-A-Face workflows from NowCandid's Party Pics Now program to streamline the process and ensure a smooth experience for everyone involved.
  2. More Photographers, More Profit:
    Increase your revenue potential by sending multiple photographers to cover the event. Assign one to a dedicated photo station for portraits, while others roam the venue capturing quick posed photos of friends and group pictures. This approach ensures that you capture a wide variety of sellable frames, making the most of your time on-site.
  3. Create a Unique Photo Station:
    Make your photo station stand out by offering themed backdrops, fun props, and creative lighting. This will not only draw the prom-goers to your station but also encourage them to share their professional photos on social media, giving you free advertising and potentially attracting new clients.
  4. Network with Schools and Event Planners:
    Build relationships with schools, event planners, and other key stakeholders to secure more prom photography gigs. Offer special deals, referral incentives, or donate a portion of your profits to the school as a way to give back and establish a positive reputation in the community.
  5. Promote Your Services:
    Use social media, your website, and local advertising to promote your prom photography services. Share examples of your work, highlight special offers, and showcase testimonials from satisfied clients to build credibility and attract new business.
  6. Capture the Essence of Prom Night:
    Prom is a night of glitz, glamor, and teenage dreams come true. To create images that truly resonate, focus on capturing the energy, emotion, and excitement of the event. Channel your inner photographer and make every shot a visual feast that transports the viewer to a world of prom night magic.

Prom photography can still be a profitable venture for professional photographers willing to adapt and innovate. By combining the power of NowCandid's Party Pics Now program with smart strategies and a touch of creativity, you can turn prom night into a lucrative opportunity that'll have you dancing all the way to the bank. And hey, who knows? You might even get a chance to bust a move on the dance floor while you're at it – just remember to keep your camera handy, because you never know when that perfect shot will present itself. Happy shooting!

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NowCandid Weekly Recap: Event Comparison Reports, Improved Folder Downloads, and More! 🍬
Feature Updates
May 16, 2025

NowCandid Weekly Recap: Event Comparison Reports, Improved Folder Downloads, and More! 🍬

4
 minutes read
Hey there, photo friends!

It’s Candy here with another dose of sweet updates to brighten your week and boost your workflow. Let’s take a look at what’s new across the NowCandid™ universe! 🌟

📊 New Event Comparison Report

Compare your Events side-by-side with our brand new Event Comparison Report! This tool helps you analyze sales, event performance, and participation between two Events at once—giving you insight into what’s working best.

Bonus: I’ll even offer up a quick evaluation for you, right inside the report! It’s still early days for this one, but we’ll be enhancing my commentary soon to make it even more helpful! 💬

Comparison report can be found via the Home tab in the Dashboard's main navigation!

🖼️ Download Entire Folders — With or Without Overlay Art

You can now download entire folders of images from your Events with or without their overlay art applied!

✨ This is a major upgrade from the old version that:

  • • Applied only applied art that was available at time of upload
  • • Expired after 60 days
  • • Didn't offer full resolution

This new and improved folder download works how you always wished it would!

Found via the download icon on an Event's Manage Images page!

📷 Selfie Check-In: Camera Roll Option for Camera Issues

Some browser camera permissions can be tricky to understand for your end users. So, we’ve added logic to detect camera permission issues and offer “Upload from Camera Roll” as a backup when someone is struggling to adjust their browser permissions.

Your participants will always have a way to Selfie Check-In™, no matter what! 😊

Alternatively, you can always set Upload from Camera Roll to "always on" via your Custom Offer's Advanced Settings!

🆓 New Offer Setting for Overlay-Only Free Downloads

Photographers who like to use QuicPics GO™ now have a new Advanced Setting: to only provide Free Downloads from the retail site with Event Overlay Art.

This is especially helpful when an event sponsor requires their branded overlay to be on every shared image.

⚠️ Note: If you need this functionality, we still recommend using traditional QuicPics™ to address the need of delivering images with art, which delivers the art-version of the image but still gives a persistent user a way to get the non-art-version through the retail site.
Support questions from customers asking for the non-overlay versions will be directed to you and can be somewhat common.

Found via your Custom Offer's Advanced Settings!

🛠️ Miscellaneous Tweaks & Fixes

Here’s a quick roundup of the smaller (but mighty!) improvements we made this week:

  • 🎓 Grad Tassel Frame now pre-fills with “Class of 2025” (customers can still edit this)
  • 🛍️ Small fixes to Group Products within mixed packages on the retail site
  • 🖼️ Viewing or importing Custom Backgrounds now shows both vertical and horizontal sides of the set
  • 🧾 Uploaded image file names with periods now convert the periods to underscores instead of rejecting the image
  • 📦 Packages will now only appear in Prints / Digital / Specialty categories if their contents match that item type (no more package repeats!)
  • 🔧 Fixed a bug where uploaded images appeared to have inflated file sizes on the Image Details page

That’s a wrap for this week’s recap!

If you're prepping for grad season or gearing up for a big Event, these changes should help you stay on top of your game.

As always, let me know if you have questions—I'm here 24/7 to help. 🧠💡

Keep being amazing,

Candy 🍬

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

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

6
 minutes read
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!🎉📸
Feature Updates
May 2, 2025

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

5
 minutes read
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 🍬

Let’s get in touch

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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
How to customize formatting for each rich text

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