School’s Out, Earnings In: A Teacher's GradPics Now Success
By
Jack C.
on
July 27, 2023
|
8
minute read
Time for another success story!
For years, graduation photography has played a crucial role in capturing the pivotal moments of grads. Not only are these professional photos treasured keepsakes, but they also present substantial income opportunities for photographers.
Consider the story of Eric, a high school photography teacher and small business owner. Eric ventured into a graduation event with NowCandid's platform, intending to photograph around 500 graduates. He had modest expectations, aiming to generate about $1,200 in sales. What unfolded next, however, far exceeded even his most optimistic projections.
In his very first event using NowCandid, the earnings soared past expectations!
Almost reaching an astounding $12,000 within only seven days after the event. Such a windfall was not only a personal victory for the teacher but also a testament to NowCandid's potential to transform event photography. So far (as of publishing this article), the event has reached well over $15,000. A far cry from his initially predicted $1,200.
Sharing his success in an email to his onboarding trainer, Darwin Drake, the photography teacher expressed his profound amazement and gratitude. "I am at $6,700 earned and counting. I am beyond speechless. I'm gobsmacked. I'm overjoyed. I am stunned." (And that reaction was before it hit $12,000 days later!)
A friends & family photo taken after the ceremony by Eric & his photographers.
But the triumph of this story goes beyond the impressive earnings.
As a teacher, Eric was able to bring his students onboard, teaching them practical skills while also providing them with paid experience. "I hired 4 of my current and former photography students for this event," he wrote, "and as a teacher and small business owner I am so profoundly thankful to be able to teach them and pay them."
Eric and some students in Berlin at a graffiti workshop just days after their successful graduation ceremony.
This story highlights the remarkable opportunities that NowCandid can bring to photographers and entrepreneurs.
Whether you're a professional photographer seeking to maximize your earnings, a teacher nurturing the next generation of photographers, or a business owner eager to expand your reach, NowCandid can provide the platform and tools you need to achieve your goals.
In event photography, moments become memories, and for a photographer: memories are opportunities!
Eric's experience shows, that with the right tools and workflow, it is more possible (and easier!) than ever before to monetize your photography in a big way.
Enjoy some more photos taken by Eric & his photographers below!
NowCandid Event Settings & Numbers Breakdown
Program: GradPics Now
Workflow: Selfie Check-In
Price Level: Price Level 8
Title Option: Simple Text Title
Staff: 4 Photographers (doing some Selfie Check-In work as well) and 1 Dedicated Selfie Check-In Attendant
Participants: 500+ Participants via Selfie Check-In
This week’s updates include something many of you have been waiting for: the first public release of the Capture App on Android. Alongside that launch, we’ve also improved PhotoRoster workflows, tightened up retail safeguards, and rolled out several capture app fixes across platforms.
Let’s take a look.
🤖 Capture App Now Available on Android (Beta)
The first Android version of the Capture App (v5.0.1) is now available on Google Play.
IMPORTANT: This is very new! So it's in BETA at the moment. Meaning, if you want to use Android, we encourage you to try a test Event at your home or office and make sure your flow works with your particular equipment! If you run into any issues, let us know right away!
This release brings feature parity with the iOS app (with the exception of Photo Booth Mode and AirPrint, which currently are not planned for Android):
📷 Supports all of our capture workflows
⚡ Same improved upload system introduced in iOS v5
🔁 Camera-triggered auto-launch support
🎨 Android themed icon support
📱 Edge-to-edge Android UI support
If you’ve been wanting to run Capture on Android devices, the foundation is now here!
Screenshots from our new Android Capture & Upload App!
📱 Capture App Improvements
iOS – Version 5.0.1 (OTA)
A few fixes and small usability improvements landed this week:
🔎 Participant not found message when scanning cards
Instead of defaulting to the first participant, the app now clearly shows when a scan doesn’t match anyone.
📊 Image gallery stats now update correctly during uploads.
📂 TKO popup now dismisses properly when setting a folder as TKO.
🖥 Windows Capture App – Version 4.21
⚡ New image upload API improves upload speed and reduces device resource usage
📡 Better behavior when signing into events with no connectivity
📂 Event selector now shows only active events when offline, matching iOS behavior
🏷️ Workflow Improvements
📥 Download PhotoTags directly from the PhotoTags page
This makes it simple to reuse or share tags between events.
📂 PhotoRoster uploads increased
Individual image uploads now support up to 5,000 images at once (previously 1,000).
🎨 Candy Image Studio Reliability Fix
Candy Image Studio uploads now behave more consistently.
Edited images will now reliably appear in all the same places as the original image, including:
All galleries
QuicPics texts
Personal galleries
Previously, images only appeared if they happened to match faces or were manually assigned.
🛍️ Retail Improvements
A couple improvements help prevent confusing edge cases for customers:
👥 Group products now properly enforce group images
If someone tries selecting a non-group image for a group product, they’ll now see a clear error message.
🌍 New international shipping notice
For non-US shipping addresses, customers now see a helpful reminder that customs or import fees may be charged by their country in addition to international shipping fees.
🖥️ Dashboard Improvements
Some smaller UI improvements landed this week:
✨ Toggle switches now animate smoothly instead of appearing choppy.
That’s the week!
The Android Capture App launch is a big step toward expanding device flexibility, and the PhotoTag downloads and PhotoRoster improvements should make event setup a little easier as well.
This week’s update is a big one. The new Capture App v5 for iOS has officially landed with major performance improvements, a refreshed UI, and some helpful workflow upgrades.
On top of that, Candy Culler just got significantly faster, retail got a couple new themes, and several tools across the Dashboard have been refined.
Let’s jump in.
📱 Capture App v5 (iOS) — Major Upgrade
Capture App Version 5 brings a full UI refresh, major performance improvements, and several new quality-of-life tools for shooting events.
⚡ v5: Faster Uploads & Better Performance
A brand-new upload system significantly improves efficiency:
📤 Uploads can be up to ~20–30% faster
📦 Payload size reduced by ~25% thanks to image transfer improvements
🔋 Lower CPU, battery, and memory usage during uploads
📷 Much better memory usage with tethered cameras
🧠 Improved overall memory performance across the app
These improvements should make long shooting sessions feel noticeably smoother.
🖼️ v5: New Image Gallery & Filters
The in-app gallery has been redesigned with better filtering and navigation:
Image name search
Uploaded / Unuploaded status
Roll filtering
Event filtering
Filters are easy to remove with a single tap, similar to the Dashboard experience.
🔁 v5: Duplicate Photo Warning
The Capture App can now warn you about duplicate images during a shoot:
Works only within the current session
Does not upload or save duplicate data
Can be disabled from the Resources page if desired
This works independently from the Dashboard’s Candy Culler duplicate detection, giving you duplicate awareness both during capture and afterward.
🧰 v5: New Event Overview Info
The event overview page now includes helpful connection details:
📡 Carrier name
📶 Cellular generation (if available)
📶 Current Wi-Fi network
This can help troubleshoot upload issues while shooting events.
🎨 v5: Photo Booth Background Packs
Photo Booth now supports downloadable background packs:
🎄 Christmas
🎃 Halloween
More to come!
The default pack is now a downloadable set as well, which keeps the main app much smaller and makes OTA updates faster.
🔧 v5: Additional Capture App Improvements
🌍 International phone numbers supported in Positive ID (were already supported in Tap-A-Face)
🧍 Full vertical images now fit on iPhone screens
🔄 Update checks run automatically when refreshing events
📧 Tap-a-Face email validation now matches Check-In pages
🔄 Upload status updates immediately after each upload
📲 Tablets can now use portrait orientation throughout the app
✨ v5: Complete UI Refresh
Version 5 introduces a polished new interface:
Modern sheet-based UI
Improved dark mode styling
Larger login and event selection screens
Updated phone number input interface
New image details sheet
Cleaner image gallery layout
New popup styling!
Vertical orientation for iPad! Yay!
Overall, the app feels faster, cleaner, and more modern.
🧠 Candy Culler: Now 5× Faster
Candy Culler processing has been dramatically upgraded.
⚡ Up to 5× more images can now be processed at once, bringing it in line with Jersey Jotter throughput.
This means faster detection for:
Duplicates
Blurry photos
Exposure issues
Closed eyes
Other culling checks
🍬 Candy Improvements
Candy continues getting faster and smarter:
⚡ Faster Candy responses
🔎 Faster Candy Navigation results
🧠 Improved event search for newly created events
🎛️ Refreshed Mini Candy UI
Pro tip: Press CMD + A / CTRL + A to toggle Mini Candy.
🧾 Dashboard Improvements
Several useful refinements were made to the Dashboard:
📊 Fixed Faces Report chart showing empty data
🧾 QR Code generator downloads now export at 1024px
📑 Scan card PDFs now sort duplicate participants exactly like the Capture App
🎨 Offer editor popups for adding products and packages are now wider with product category tabs
📊 Event order list diamond-press counts now include quantities correctly
🧭 QR Creator and Image Tester now appear in Sidebar Find
🎨 New Retail Themes
Candy's Note: We hope you enjoy the pupper pics!
🍵 Matcha Theme – a clean green storefront (great for spring or St. Patrick’s Day)
🍠 Ube Theme – a bold purple theme
Bonus: Retail UI styling also received improvements for tabs, checkboxes, and order tracking.
📳 Haptics for Mobile Retail & Check-In
Mobile users will now feel subtle feedback interactions when using the site:
Tap feedback
Success feedback (add to cart, order placed)
Error feedback
This makes mobile ordering and check-in feel much more responsive, alive, and engaging!
🤳 Selfie Check-In Improvements
The Selfie Check-In site received improvements to the local face recognition model, making it more reliable and stable on more devices.
💰 QuicPics Adjustment
Good news for high-volume QuicPics users:
Selfie Check-Ins and PhotoRoster reference images no longer count as billable images.
That means QuicPics events that use those workflows will be slightly cheaper overall.
📥 Easier Downloads on iPhone
On iOS Chrome: Press-and-hold image downloads now open the iOS Share menu, making it much easier to save images. (iOS Safari already supported this behavior.)
🌐 New QuicPics Landing Page
The Quic.Pics site now has a proper landing page instead of only a login screen in case end customers stumble across it somehow.
Hopefully this helps it seem more legit while still remaining relatively white-label for your photographers out there!
Capture App v5 is a big upgrade, and combined with the faster Candy Culler and several Dashboard improvements, the entire workflow from capture → cull → sell just got smoother.
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.