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Crowning Moments: Turning Prom Night into Profit with NowCandid

Crowning Moments: Turning Prom Night into Profit with NowCandid
Prom night is an iconic milestone in a high schooler’s life, brimming with fashion, friendships, and unforgettable memories.

While it's true that smartphones have made "everyone a photographer", professional prom photography remains a lucrative venture. Why? The answer lies in the quality that professional photos can offer, capturing prom night with a finesse that smartphones simply can't match.

The Profitability of Prom Photography

Prom photography can be highly profitable, with a target metric of $1.50 per image being a realistic benchmark for success. However, with the right approach, this figure can soar, as evidenced by a NowCandid's users Oklahoma City Prom, which achieved $2 per image across 3000 pictures taken, totaling $6000 in sales.

The key to serious profitability lies in having quantity, quality, and variety! An effective photographer using NowCandid has the ability to quickly deliver a professional, high-quality image gallery that will capture the attention of their subjects.

Why Proms are Still Profitable

  1. Social Media Influence: Today’s high schoolers live in a social media-centric world where the quality of a photo can greatly increase the quality of a post. Professional, well-lit, and expertly framed photos are in demand for their social media feeds, making them willing to purchase digital copies for their Instagram or Facebook profiles.
  2. Parental Investment: Parents are equally important customers in the prom photography market. They cherish these milestones and are often more than willing to purchase photos that capture their child’s special night. Using Selfie Check-In allows you to collect both the subject and the parents' contact info, marketing the subject's photos to both parties!
  3. Speedy Delivery: With the help of NowCandid, images can be available for purchase instantly. Selling images right away can benefit your overall sales thanks to impulse purchases people make when they are at their most excited about the Event.
  4. Unique Print Products: Unique print products alongside desirable images is always a combination that will generate extra sales! A variety of products be purchased, in addition to the usual prints and downloads. You can even upload an Event-specific custom banner to your Events to further make your product unique compared to the images subjects can take with their own phones - turning every photo into a memento!

Keys to Successful Prom Photography

  • Quality: While taking a substantial number of photos is important, ensuring the quality of your images increases their salability. Ensure each photo is well-lit and tightly cropped!
  • 2 Pics Per Minute: Aim for 2 pictures every minute, targeting 120+ per hour. These need to be unique images too - don't count duplicates! Utilize features like NowCandid’s LiveLoop to encourage guests to seek out photographers to get on the big screen.
  • Posing: Encourage a variety of poses to maximize the number of sellable images for any group you approach. After photographing a group of four, break the group into couples, ladies only, guys only, etc.
  • Photo Stations: Establish a dedicated photo area with an attractive backdrop suitable for individuals, couples, and groups, enhancing the variety and appeal of a subject's image gallery. Props are optional, but can be a fun addition. Also, a photo station is also a good place to station your less-social photographers, as guests will come to them!
  • Selfie Check-In Mastery: Achieving high participation in Selfie Check-In not only streamlines image delivery but also ensures a direct marketing channel to both students and their parents.
  • Strategic Staffing: Align the number of photographers with the expected guest count, aiming for one photographer per 100-150 guests to ensure comprehensive coverage of the event.
  • Strategic Compensation: Many successful social photographers pay their photographers based on how many unique (no duplicates) and sellable (good quality) images they take at a party. Consider paying $0.20 per sellable image with a minimum pay of $18 an hour, guaranteeing them decent pay but giving them room to take more images to make you both more money. (Example: 120 images an hour would be $24 an hour)

NowCandid: Your Partner in Capturing the Magic of Prom Night

NowCandid software is designed to streamline the photography process, from efficient image capture and upload to simplifying sales through intuitive galleries and easy online ordering.

With NowCandid, photographers can focus on what they do best—taking stunning photos—while the platform handles the logistics, making each prom a potential goldmine of photographic opportunities.

Success Stories to Inspire

Photographers like Tosha LaForest and Eric Miller have harnessed the power of NowCandid to amplify their school dance and event photography sales. Their experiences underscore the potential of well-executed prom and dance photography to significantly boost revenue and client satisfaction.

Prom photography, powered by NowCandid, offers a great option for photographers to expand their portfolios and profit margins. By focusing on quality, variety, and quantity, photographers can tap into the lucrative prom market, turning each dance into a profitable venture (and fun) venture.

Learn more, and join the ranks of successful prom photographers with NowCandid.

Visit our success stories to learn more and get inspired to capture the vibrant energy and timeless elegance of prom night.

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Weekly Recap: New 24×8 Panoramic Print, and More! 🖼️🧾
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January 30, 2026

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

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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 🍬

Weekly Recap: New Panoramic Prints, Smarter Culling Tools & Checkout Improvements🖼️🧾
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January 23, 2026

Weekly Recap: New Panoramic Prints, Smarter Culling Tools & Checkout Improvements🖼️🧾

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Hey photo friends! 👋

Candy here with this week’s updates. Highlights include two new panoramic print products, a bunch of Manage Images + Candy Culler usability wins, and retail checkout + link preview improvements.

Let’s jump in!

🆕 New Products: Panoramic Prints (Group-Only)

🖼️ 15×5 Panoramic Print (Group-only)


🖼️ 30×10 Panoramic Print (Group-only)

These are available across both Dashboard + Retail.

Reminders:

When you flag photos as Group Photos, they will become purchasable on Group products only IF you have Group Products in your Event's Offer.

If there are NOT Group Products in your Event's Offer, then images marked as Group Photos will be purchasable on any product (including downloads).

🖥️ Dashboard: Manage Images + Candy Culler Improvements

🧰 More Tools always visible on Manage Images

  • Previously it only appeared after an event had at least one image.

🌾 Candy Culler icon updated (axe → scythe)

👁️ Visibility toggle added right on the Cull page

  • Toggle visibility from the top-right of the image without opening the lightbox.

📦 Download Folder improves naming

  • Downloads now default to the folder name for the ZIP file, and you can choose where to save or rename it.

⌨️ CTRL/CMD+F supported on the Event PhotoTags page

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Rosters, PhotoTags & Participant Fixes

🏷️ Roster upload now accepts “PhotoTags” column header

  • Previously only accepted “PhotoTag”.

🧩 PhotoTag filtering fixed on Participant List + Participant Details

  • Especially in edge cases where a later-merged record had the PhotoTag but the initial record didn’t.

📇 PhotoRoster Data Upload now supports 3 Additional Contacts (up from 2)

🧾 Image Release Gallery fixes

  • Face count edge cases resolved (duplicates/additional contacts/duplicate submissions)
  • Program filter fixed

🛍️ Retail: Checkout & Sharing Improvements

🧾 Improved checkout backend

  • Includes protections to reduce the edge case of double charges during backend disruptions.

🔗 Link previews fixed for non-QuicPics events

  • Previews should reliably appear in apps like iMessage and Discord.
    • If a retail hero exists, it’s used
    • Otherwise, the first relevant gallery image is used

🛡️ GalleryGuard enabled when watermark opacity is 0%

  • For events where the retail watermark setting is set to 0% opacity, GalleryGuard will still protect images.
    (Still disabled for Quic-type events.)

🌀 LiveLoop™ Fixes

🧠 Fixed out-of-memory crashing sometimes for LiveLoops with artwork renders

🖼️ Fixed artwork sometimes disappearing after LiveLoop runs for a long time

⚡ Performance & UI Fixes (Small but Helpful)

🚀 Offer list + Event Details load a bit faster

👤 Some profile actions are faster (passcode changes, retail settings, account data used by PhotoCoach / PortraitPress popups)

🧩 Fixed some Participant Details pages not loading

🖼️ Fixed Manage Images lightbox details getting out of sync when using arrow keys

🧷 Fixed Manage Images scrolling to the top when toggling visibility

🔑 Fixed Forgot Password page not sending email

📦 Offer Creator: New “À La Carte” Package Breakdown

🧮 New “À La Carte” section inside packages shows:

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  • The package discount a shopper is getting (shows 0% if discount would be negative)

Note / Feature-Preview: In the near future, this will also be expanded to better highlight savings on packages on the retail site to your customers, automatically!

✅ Misc + Check-In Improvement

💬 Text campaigns weekend test: recurring (non-day-0) texts will now place the retail link at the very end to encourage link previews.

🤳 Selfie Check-In reliability improvements

That’s the week!

New panoramic prints, smoother culling, better retail reliability, and a bunch of cleanup that should make day-to-day usage feel tighter.

Keep creating magic,

Candy 🍬

Weekly Recap: Candy Culler Upgrades & Miscellaneous Tweaks 🍬✨
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January 16, 2026

Weekly Recap: Candy Culler Upgrades & Miscellaneous Tweaks 🍬✨

4
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Hey photo friends! 👋


This week was all about making renders look right, downloads behave better, and Dashboard tools feel faster (with a few Capture App and LiveLoop™ polish wins sprinkled in).

Here’s what’s new:

🛍️ Retail Site

🌀 2D render support for Premium Print & Premium Plaque

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🆓 Free download product ordering improved (Quic-Events)

  • Free Download now always appears first
  • Free Gallery Download will always appear second (if available)

📝 Clearer Free Gallery Download description

  • It now correctly says full-resolution (when it’s not the “Medium Res Gallery Download”).

📦 Web Receipt Download Page

🖼️ Preview fit fixed

  • Images now fit completely in the preview, so artwork (like bottom/banner elements) won’t look “missing” behind buttons.

🔄 Smarter auto-refresh while processing

  • If the lab is still preparing downloads, the page will automatically refresh status updates in the background so customers don’t have to babysit it.

🖥️ Dashboard

📄 Participant download spreadsheet improvements

  • Fixed the images column always showing “…” at the end
  • “Ref Image” column renamed to RefImageName (matches PhotoRoster sheets)
  • Address columns are included when applicable (only if at least one participant has a check-in address)

🗂️ Cleaner downloaded filenames

  • Downloaded images no longer get Full_Res_ or Full_Res_W_Banner appended to the filename.

🧾 PhotoRoster Data Upload cleanup

  • Folder names are now removed from RefImageName automatically (e.g., 1/DSC_4143DSC_4143).

Faster reports

  • Many reports (including the overview report) should load quicker.

🍬 Candy Culler (Our New AI Culling Tool)

🍬 Candy Culler added to Command Palette

  • You can now launch it from CTRL+K / CMD+K while on an Event Details page.

📊 Candy Culler progress bar + auto-updating status

  • New X/Y processed progress display, with automatic refresh until everything is done.

🧠 Candy Culler quality fixes & polish

  • BGR folders won’t be culled before a PNG actually exists
  • Images sort by image name (A→Z)
  • Improved mobile UI

🌀 LiveLoop™

🖼️ Better full-frame and banner rendering (pixel-perfect)

🧵 Banner/full-frame art now uses full resolution (no longer medium)

🍏 Background blur re-enabled on Apple devices

📱 Capture App iOS 4.22.4 (OTA Jan 12)

More native-feeling navigation transitions

📞 Phone field keypad behavior fixed (no unexpected iOS keypad when manually tapping)

🧷 Gallery strip stays where you were

  • When marking images visible/hidden or group/not group, the strip no longer jumps back to the start.

🧼 Misc Fixes & Cleanup

🧩 Render Preview page fixes (quic.pics/render)

  • Several products that weren’t downloading renders correctly should now behave as expected.

🧲 Cutout Magnets + Statuettes now supported on the preview page

  • Render previews/downloads are enabled for these products (note: they’ll only look correct if the selected image is a cutout).

🖨️ Premium Print & Premium Plaque render downloads enabled

  • You can now download renders for 8×10 Premium Print and Premium Plaque from the preview page too.

🔤 Input cleanup for non-English-standard characters

  • Certain fancy/unsupported characters are auto-converted to standard English characters to prevent weird issues in names, sign-in fields, business info, etc.

That’s the week!

Lots of “little” changes that add up to cleaner previews, clearer downloads, and faster tools where you use them most.

Keep creating magic,

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