Hey photo friends! 👋

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Candy here with another weekly recap! This week’s biggest addition is a new Abandoned Cart Recovery marketing message designed to help bring shoppers back and complete purchases they already started.

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We’ve also made Quick Candy Image Studio more powerful for editing a selected group of images, added shareable discount links, and made several improvements across participant tools, Virtual Groups, and the Capture App.

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Let’s jump in!

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🛒 NEW: Abandoned Cart Recovery Marketing

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Sometimes a customer gets all the way to building a cart... and then life happens.

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NowCandid will now automatically follow up with those shoppers via text + email to encourage them to come back and finish their order.

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📅 Abandoned cart messaging will go out once a week!

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🛍️ Targets participants who created a cart but did not complete their purchase

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🚫 Participants who have already ordered are excluded

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1️⃣ Each participant can only receive one abandoned-cart follow-up per Event

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📊 Sends are still recorded on the Event’s Marketing History page

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This gives shoppers a helpful nudge to return to something they were already interested in buying—and hopefully turns a few more unfinished carts into completed sales. 📈

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Note: NowCandid's abandoned cart rate is already very low. Even so, we expect this to boost your overall sales by about 0.3% or more!

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🎨 Batch AI Editing Gets More Powerful

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Quick Candy Image Studio on Manage Images continues to fill the gap between editing one image at a time and running Auto Editor across an entire folder or Event.

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Select a handful of images, open Quick Candy Image Studio, and apply an AI edit across the selection.

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This week, it also gained more of the controls available in the full Candy Image Studio:

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👁️ Mark Original Invisible

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✂️ Mark Destination Folder as Background Removal Folder‍

• Available when Background Removal is enabled for the Event.

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🖼️ Custom image-input nodes fixed‍

• Nodes that require another image as an input now behave correctly through Quick Candy Image Studio.

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This makes it much easier to apply the same edit to a small, intentional group of images without setting up a larger Auto Editor workflow.

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👥 Participant List Improvements

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🏷️ PhotoTags now appear as badges‍

• Participant rows now show assigned PhotoTags directly, similar to the existing Additional Contact badge.

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👨‍👩‍👧 Merged participants are easier to understand‍

• Individual merged records now appear as separate, indented rows beneath the main merged participant.

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🙈 Hidden PhotoTags stay hidden‍

• Fixed hidden PhotoTags incorrectly appearing on Participant Details.

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🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Virtual Group Builder Improvements

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↩️ Better Undo behavior for sliders

• CTRL/CMD + Z now behaves more naturally when adjusting slider values.

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🖱️ Better drag-and-drop with large groups‍

• The Subjects pane is easier to work with when there are dozens of participants.

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🖼️ Full-resolution render consistency fix‍

• Fixed an edge case where the final full-res Virtual Group could differ from the Builder preview.

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🤖 Auto Editor & Background Removal

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🙈 Hide Originals now handles BGR originals correctly‍

• If Hide Originals is enabled and the original folder is marked for Background Removal, the original PNG will now be hidden too.

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The same behavior now applies in Candy Image Studio.

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📱 Capture App 5.9.3

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iOS & Android OTA — September 1

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📋 Shooting mode selector fixed on tablets‍

• The popup is now scrollable, so options like Roster Check-In are always reachable.

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📸 Photo Booth fix on iOS‍

• Cancelling the countdown no longer accidentally disables the Event collage.

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That’s the week!

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Abandoned Cart Recovery is the big addition here, giving NowCandid another way to help turn existing shopper interest into completed orders. And with the improvements to Quick Candy Image Studio, you’ve got more flexibility for those “edit these five photos, not the entire folder” situations too.

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Keep creating magic,

Candy 🍬

Hey photo friends! 👋

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Candy here with another weekly recap! This week’s biggest addition is a major upgrade to Client Outreach: you can now schedule texts and emails to send later. We’ve also added smarter Virtual Group tools, new Candy Image Studio looks, and a few useful retail and Dashboard fixes.

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Let’s jump in!

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📅 Client Outreach Can Now Be Scheduled

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You can now schedule Client Outreach messages to send at a future date and time instead of having to send everything immediately.

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⏰ Schedule texts or emails up to 60 days in advance

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📋 New Scheduled page to see upcoming sends

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❌ Cancel a scheduled outreach before it goes out

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💰 See estimated sends and cost before the scheduled time

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🔔 Get notified when it sends

• Dashboard Inbox notification
• Mobile Dashboard push notification

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This makes Client Outreach much more useful for planned reminders, follow-ups, announcements, and other messages you already know you’ll want to send later.

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👥 Import from multiple Events at once

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When building a Client Outreach list from Event contacts, you can now select multiple Events in a single import instead of adding them one at a time.

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🏈 Virtual Group Builder Gets Smarter

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Virtual Group Builder picked up several new controls this week:

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🔢 New Auto Order By Jerseys button‍

• Automatically reorder subjects based on their jersey numbers.
• This is powered by Jersey Jotter, but Jersey Jotter does not need to be enabled on the Event for you to use it.

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🧠 Improved Auto Headsize‍

• Automatic subject sizing should now produce better results.

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👤 Less disruptive participant additions‍

• Adding one participant now places them at the bottom-right of the bottom row instead of automatically rearranging the entire group.

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🌈 New Saturation slider‍

• Adjust an individual subject’s saturation from the Subject Inspector.

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🌑 Drop Shadow can now be disabled‍

• There’s a new toggle if you prefer the group without subject shadows. Drop Shadow behavior also works more naturally with Cutout Fade.

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🌫️ Simplified Cutout Fade‍

• Cutout Fade and Cutout Fade Intensity have been combined into a single control with improved defaults and results.

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↕️ More vertical positioning freedom‍

• Subjects can now be moved significantly farther downward when needed.

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🎛️ New Effects category‍

• Some related controls have been reorganized to make the Builder easier to navigate.

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🎨 New Candy Image Studio Looks

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Two new low-cost styles are available:

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🌸 Mayfair — 4¢‍

• A polished filter-inspired look with its own distinct color treatment.

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🌈 Lively‍

• Similar in spirit to Clarendon, but with a different look and feel. Give it a try!

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🛠️ Candy Image Studio fixes

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✨ Fixed some nodes not working through Quick Candy Image Studio on Manage Images

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🖼️ Fixed the Retouch node failing on especially large image files

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🖥️ Dashboard Improvements

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📣 Event Marketing History links are more visible‍

• Three important links on the page are now displayed as cards, matching the approach used elsewhere in the Dashboard.

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🏷️ Remove PhotoTags in bulk‍

• Select multiple participants on the Participant List page and use the new Remove PhotoTags button to clear their PhotoTags at once.

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📱 Mobile Dashboard

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No app update required:

• ⬅️ Previous Page
• ➡️ Next Page

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Both options are now available from the logo button / Quick Actions menu at the top of the Mobile Dashboard.

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🛍️ Retail & Quic Fixes

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📦 Group package visibility fixed‍

• Packages containing group products will no longer incorrectly appear when an Event has no group images.

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🤖 Auto Edited FreePics/FreePortraits images fixed‍

• Fixed an issue where Event-level Auto Edits with Hide Originals enabled were not being texted once the edited image was ready.

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That’s the week!

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Scheduled Client Outreach opens up a lot more ways to plan customer communication ahead of time, while the new Virtual Group tools should make sports layouts quicker and easier to fine-tune.

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Keep creating magic,

Candy 🍬

When you've been in the event photography business for nearly two decades, you've seen just about everything.

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But every once in a while, a new tool comes along that changes the game.

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For Matt Nassif of Joe Photo Tampa, that tool has been NowCandid's Auto Editor.

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Nearly 20 Years of Capturing Memories

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Joe Photo Tampa has been photographing events across Florida for almost 20 years. Matt credits much of that journey to his longtime friend and mentor, Ed Kempf of Impact Photography/Joe Photo Iowa.

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Back in 2007, Ed introduced Matt to Candid Color Systems, inviting him to visit Oklahoma and see everything CCS had to offer firsthand. That visit marked the beginning of a partnership that continues nearly two decades later.

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"I'll be going into my 20th year this fall and feel incredibly blessed to have CCS as my lab. I'm also grateful for my mentor Ed, who has guided me throughout the years."

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When NowCandid was just getting started, Matt was there from the beginning. After reconnecting with Jack at a photography conference in Las Vegas in early 2020, he became one of the platform's original beta testers, working closely with the development team to help shape the software.

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Today, Matt has been using NowCandid for six years and believes Joe Photo Tampa is one of the platform's largest users.

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Taking a Chance on Something New

When Matt first learned about the Auto Editor through a NowCandid newsletter, he immediately saw an opportunity.

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One of his long-time clients was celebrating their 20th anniversary, with more than 600 guests expected to attend. Rather than offering another standard event experience, Matt wanted to surprise attendees with something they'd never seen before.

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The result?

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A huge success.

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More than 180 guests participated in the Auto Editor experience.

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"It was a TOTAL hit."

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Like many photographers, Matt admits he was initially hesitant because of the AI component.

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"My biggest hesitation was simply not knowing anything about AI."

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Fortunately, a little guidance helped turn uncertainty into excitement.

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Creating an Experience Guests Remember

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By his third Auto Editor event, Matt had found his rhythm.

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"What surprised me the most is how fun, different, and interactive the Auto Editor is."

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Guests weren't just participating. They were bringing their friends back to experience it themselves.

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"Guests would receive their character on their phone, then come back with more friends so they could try it too. That's a win-win for Joe Photo Tampa!"

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The response from event hosts has been equally enthusiastic.

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"My customers loved the product, and their guests were showing off their images and posting them online."

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More Than a Fun Feature: A Business Opportunity

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While the guest experience has been exciting, the business results have been just as impressive.

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At Matt's second Auto Editor event, one guest loved the experience so much that she booked Joe Photo Tampa on the spot for another event just 72 hours later.

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"The product sells itself."

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Matt also sees Auto Editor opening doors in an increasingly competitive market.

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"This is an upsell product that can definitely compete with the photo booth world."

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Instead of simply taking another picture, photographers can offer clients an interactive experience that guests talk about long after the event ends.

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Advice for Fellow Photographers

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Matt's advice for photographers considering Auto Editor is simple:

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"If not now, when?"

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He encourages photographers to spend some time experimenting before introducing it to clients.

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"Try it at the office. Test it. Learn what prompts work best for your style and events."

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He also offers one important reminder:

"AI isn't perfect. It takes some patience to learn what works best. Once you get your prompts dialed in, it becomes an incredible product."

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A Photographer Who Loves What He Does

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Whether it's corporate events, parties, or celebrations, Matt simply loves photographing people.

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His photography style?

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Fun. Outgoing. Professional.

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And when it comes to camera gear...

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"I bleed Nikon."

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Thank You, Joe Photo Tampa!

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Matt has been an incredible partner to NowCandid from the very beginning! From helping beta test the platform to embracing new features like Auto Editor and sharing honest feedback along the way.

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We're incredibly grateful for photographers like Matt who continue to push the platform forward while creating unforgettable experiences for their clients.

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Thank you, Matt, for being part of the NowCandid family. We can't wait to see what you create next.