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Grad Season 2024 Mid-Season Report: Small Grads Outperforming Expectations

Grad Season 2024 Mid-Season Report: Small Grads Outperforming Expectations

We have talked about graduations a lot in our blog posts lately, as we try to help photographers be as prepared as possible for graduation season this year. And now, it's time to look at some numbers, and see what kinds of Events are performing well so far. After which, we'll discuss the findings.

Small Graduations Leading the Way 🌟

As the title implies, small graduations (graduations in the 50-250 graduate range) have been some of the top performers so far this grad season. While some larger graduations have more total sales overall thanks to the large number of participants, certain smaller graduations have sales per graduate averages that blow large graduations out of the water.

Below are a few examples of GradPics Now graduations that have taken place in either April or May of this year. Keep in mind these are sales so far and being these Events are recent, these numbers will continue to rise.

Note: Many details have been removed, summarized, or approximated to preserve privacy for all parties involved with these Events.

  • An Oklahoma Medical School Graduation
    • ~100 graduates
    • ~$48 sales per graduate
    • ~$4,800 in sales

  • A Kansas Medical School Graduation
    • ~150 graduates
    • ~$49 sales per graduate
    • ~$7,350 in sales

  • A Texas Ring Ceremony
    • ~200 graduates
    • ~$46.50 sales per graduate
    • ~$9,300 in sales

  • A Louisiana High School Graduation
    • ~75 graduates
    • ~$31 sales per graduate
    • ~$2,325 in sales

  • A Small Arkansas College Graduation
    • ~250 graduates
    • ~$31.50 sales per graduate
    • ~$7,875 in sales

5 quick examples, 5 different locations, and even some variety in terms of the type of ceremony. But all of them were relatively small. And yet, their sales per graduate averages far exceed the $20 sales per graduate benchmark we expect photographers to hit when doing a good job of implementing GradPics Now's best practices.

Why Are Small Graduations Excelling? 🤔

Are these more intimate graduation ceremonies more conducive to better photography? OR, is this a question of staffing? Perhaps it is simply easier to execute Selfie Check-In well, and take more pictures per graduate when there are fewer graduates to photograph. Several of these top-performing Events are related to medical schools; could that demographic have a lot of overlap with photo-buyers?

As always, the answer is likely a mix of all the above. However, I suspect that the most influential factor is the staffing.

Many photographers, especially those using NowCandid, are either just branching out into graduations for the first time or are just beginning their journey of scaling up and growing their photo business. To maximize your graduation sales, you need good quality pictures and a lot of them. Getting a strong image per graduate count is one of the best ways to improve your sales and sales per graduate averages - second only to doing a good job with Selfie Check-In for the Event.

Photographers that are new to graduations or still working to grow their business likely cannot send a large enough staff to large graduation ceremonies to cover them as effectively as the same staff could cover a smaller graduation. With a better photographer-to-graduate ratio, it becomes easier to focus on getting good pictures and increasing your image per graduate averages, and thus, better sales per graduate averages.

What This Means for You 📊

All in all, following the best practices we have outlined in our recent graduation-related posts are the best ways to increase your graduation sales and to provide both yourself and your customers with a smooth, streamlined graduation experience:

But perhaps we have not talked enough about proper staffing, as the exceptional averages at certain smaller ceremonies outshining NowCandid's larger ceremony averages are noteworthy.

And of course, maybe most importantly of all, is to realize that small graduations can be extremely lucrative when care is put into them! So, consider booking some of the smaller graduations you may have shied away from in the past. Plus, it can be helpful to avoid putting all your eggs into just a few large graduations you have. Schools can be fickle, and you never know when one may decide to switch providers.

That's all for now!

Happy snapping,

Jack III

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Weekly Recap: Capture 4.20, Favorites for All Image Galleries, and More 📸
Feature Updates
July 11, 2025

Weekly Recap: Capture 4.20, Favorites for All Image Galleries, and More 📸

9
 minutes read
Hey hey! Candy here with your NowCandid updates.

Let’s dig into what’s new this week:

🚀 Capture App Version 4.20 Is Here!

Big updates just dropped in NowCandid Capture App v4.20, and I’m here to walk you through all the exciting changes. Whether you’re on iPhone, iPad, or now even a Mac, this update makes capturing better, faster, and more flexible than ever.

🖥️ Now on Apple Silicon Macs!

Mac support has officially landed!


If you’ve got a Mac from 2020 or newer (Apple Silicon), you can now run the NowCandid Capture App directly on your computer. That means full access to camera tethering, live-uploading, Selfie Check-In Station, and more—all in the same app you already know and love on iOS and iPadOS.

Perfect for studio setups or hybrid workflows where a full keyboard and screen come in handy!

📷 Fujifilm Joins the Party

That’s right—Fujifilm cameras are now fully supported!


With this, all five major camera brands are compatible with NowCandid Capture & Upload:

  • • Canon
  • • Sony
  • • Nikon
  • • LUMIX
  • • Fujifilm

So, if you’re shooting sports, portraits, grads, or events on a Fuji body, you’re now cleared for lift-off. 🎉

NOTE: To connect a Fuji camera to the Capture & Upload App, you must select a USB Tether Shooting option in the camera's Networking Settings.

🔮 Future-Proofed for Apple OS Updates

Capture App v4.20 includes early support for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26, so you’ll be all set once those updates roll out later this year. No last-minute patching or scrambling required.

🎨 Visual & Interface Upgrades

  • • Animated UI numbers (like image counts!) now update with fun, smooth transitions.
  • • New Shooting Page UI on iPhone gives more space to your camera feed.
  • • Sharpened icons throughout the app—crisper visuals everywhere.
  • • Phone keypad is now larger and easier to tap.
  • • PhotoTags popup got a cleaner layout.
  • • Updated splash screen messages: wittier, more emoji-filled, and faster-loading too!

📸 Photo Booth & Selfie Check-In Tweaks

  • • New Color Filters for Photo Booth: Try out Juno, Lark, Mayfair, Sierra, and Walden—just like your favorite photo apps.
  • • Photo Booth collage previews now live-update when filters or backgrounds change. What you see is actually what you get!
  • • Internal camera now runs at 60fps on the Shooting Page, Selfie Check-In Station, and Photo Booth Mode for smoother live-video feeds.
  • • Flash support added to Selfie Check-In: the screen will flash during the photo if your device decides it’s needed.
  • • "Close" button for Selfie Check-In Station is now only shown during the contact info step (to reduce some confusion users had).

🛠️ Performance & Power Gains

  • • Better battery life and CPU usage from under-the-hood improvements.
  • General performance improvements to make the app snappier.
  • • iOS 18+ now supports dark mode icons and tinted app icon options for better theme matching on your device.
  • • The Lock button is now in the iPhone's shooting page wheel menu—it’s still there if you need it, just tidier.

With v4.20, the NowCandid Capture App is faster, more flexible, and ready for more workflows than ever—whether you’re on your phone, iPad, or a shiny new Mac. 🧃

⭐ Favorites for All-Image Gallery Links

Your subjects can now favorite images when viewing the All Images Gallery for an Event! Favorites will stick around between sessions on the same device and browser, and if the visitor logs in, they’ll sync across their devices too.

This opens up new workflows for action sports photographers and beyond. Want to promote the full gallery and let customers find their pics with JerseyJotter™ filters? Now they can build their own personal gallery of favorites, even if they didn’t check in or match through Face Matching. In general, this makes the All Images Gallery more shoppable for every type of Event.

🔧 Misc New Features & Tweaks

Some smaller updates this week—still useful!

  • 📥 Press & Hold Downloads (Now with Backgrounds!)
    QuicPics users on mobile can now press and hold to download images with their selected background. Previously, this was only available through the cart and checkout.
  • 🔢 JerseyJotter™ Filter Stats Update
    When filtering by number, color filter stats will now update dynamically to reflect how many images match both filters. It’s a smarter way to narrow things down.
  • 🛡️ GalleryGuard™ in Photo Synthesis™ Galleries
    Retail visitors browsing their Photo Synthesis™ gallery via Quic.Pics are now protected by screenshot blocking, just like the standard retail site. 📵
  • 💰 Sort by Purchased Images
    On the Manage Images page, you can now sort by “Purchased Images” to see what’s actually selling. Great for evaluating your top-performing shots!
  • 🧠📸 Memory Mate is now a "Hybrid" product!
    We’ve updated how Memory Mate products behave on the retail site. They’ll now show up in both the Group and Individual product sections depending on what photo types are available in the gallery.
    Even better: when a customer clicks into the product gallery, Memory Mates will preview with either the group photo or individual photo already filled in—whichever one they had selected going in.

That’s everything for Now!

More improvements coming your way soon. Keep snapping, tagging, and selling—I'll be here making it smoother every step of the way.

Cheers,

Candy

Weekly Recap: Offer-Level Backgrounds, Jersey Filters & Pop Rocks Theme 🎆
Feature Updates
July 3, 2025

Weekly Recap: Offer-Level Backgrounds, Jersey Filters & Pop Rocks Theme 🎆

4
 minutes read
Hey friends! It’s Candy, back again with updates on all things NowCandid.

This week? We’re talking backgrounds, jersey-spotting magic, and some serious product glow-ups. Let’s dig in! 🍬✨

🎨 Offer-Level Background Customization Is Here!

Now, you can set custom backgrounds at the Offer level!

  • • Pick from hundreds of preloaded background options
  • • Or upload your own (yep, your own!)
  • • Drag and drop to arrange their order just how you like
  • • Choose between 20 and 32 backgrounds to match your event’s vibe
  • • This background selection will set the choices for dynamic BGR images in Events using that Offer

Find it under "Image Backgrounds" when editing one of your custom offers!

🏀 JerseyJotter™ Got Even Smarter

Multiple jersey numbers at once? Don’t mind if I do! 🎯

Retail customers can now filter by more than one jersey number while browsing galleries—so if they’re hunting down that epic shot of #1 handing off to #23, they can actually find it. The more, the merrier!

JerseyJotter™ in action! Now able to filter down even more. Theme: Liquorice

✨ New & Improved Product Renders!

Our non-rendering products got a visual upgrade! Depending on the program or market, you’ll now see better sample graphics in the product gallery for:

  • • Spirit Noggins
  • • Spirit Sticks
  • • Canvas Wraps
  • • Wall Clings
  • • ...and even statuettes and acrylic magnets when using standard images.

Graduations? Sports? Social vibes? We’ve got you covered with graphics that actually match the moment. Love that for us. 💅

Here are two examples of what we're talking about:

✨ Improving Live-Rendering for Statuettes

📸 Statuettes now render in the product gallery with a transparent acrylic base (ooh, classy) and an updated plate design.


🎯 And just in case you missed it: Acrylic Magnets and Statuettes now live-render when customers are viewing the product gallery for a background-removed image.

Theme: Pop Rocks - Watermarking: Off

🎆 In Case You Missed It: Pop Rocks Theme!

We dropped a new “Pop Rocks” retail theme right before the 4th of July—complete with fireworks, dark mode, and party vibes galore.


Use it for summer celebrations, school events, or whenever you feel like turning up the wow.

🛠️ Misc Fixes & Tweaks!

🖼️ Quic-Event Tweak: When not selling a Digital Download product in your Quic-Events, the free download will now be much higher resolution!

🤳 Selfie Check-In™: A sneaky bug was messing with Selfie Check-In™ on some phones, but I waved my magic wand and poof—fixed.

📅 Report Date Picker: You can now select dates earlier than July 2023 when setting date ranges for reports. A little overdue... but better late than never, right? 😅

That’s all for this week!

Until next week,
– Candy 🍭✨

How One Photographer Increased Graduation Sales with Fewer Participants Using NowCandid™
Success Stories
June 30, 2025

How One Photographer Increased Graduation Sales with Fewer Participants Using NowCandid™

6
 minutes read

When a long-time graduation photography business, which has asked to remain anonymous, decided to switch an event they’d covered for years to NowCandid’s platform, the results were impressive.

Despite a significant drop in graduates at this ceremony, this studio has outperformed last year’s total sales, thanks to smarter systems, easier check-ins, and a smoother experience for families.

🎓 The Challenge

Capturing a graduation is always a high-volume, high-pressure operation. For years, this photography business relied on pre-registration lists and manual image matching. But getting enough students to register ahead of time was always a hurdle—and every missed check-in meant lost revenue.

With parents and schools expecting a faster, more polished experience, the team knew they needed a better way to deliver.

✅ The Solution

This year, they went all in with NowCandid’s smart, automated workflow:

  • • Selfie Check-In™ for faster, more flexible student identification
  • • Automated galleries and image matching, cutting down post-event sorting time
  • • Mobile-optimized customer galleries with tiered pricing offers
  • • Real-time reporting and clearer communication with the school

And the big win? Selfie Check-In™ now gives graduates up to 60 days after the event to register their photo—capturing stragglers who might otherwise never see their images.

📊 The Results

Here’s how the numbers stack up compared to last year:

  • • NUMBER OF GRADUATES:  -10%
  • • SALES PER PARTICIPANT:  +39%
  • • ORDER AVERAGE:  +29%

The graduation's 2025 sales over the past 45 days has already exceeded their 2024 sales over 365 days by 26%.

Meaning, their total sales are up 26% with plenty of time to increase going forward.

By giving families more time and an easier path to find their photos, the studio saw higher average order values, better sales per participant, and less manual work for their team—even with fewer students overall.

💬 What the Studio Noticed

  • • Time savings: Fewer employees needed to manage sign-ups on site.
  • • Lower labor costs: Less time chasing registrations, more focus on shooting.
  • • Less customer service: Fewer retail support calls, because NowCandid helps with those!
  • • Happier schools: Schools loved the modern process and the extra contact info for staying connected with new grads.

🎯 Their Biggest Wins

When asked what they’d tell another studio thinking about making the switch, the owner put it simply:

“What are you waiting for? We increased sales, lowered our labor costs, and made the process easier for everyone.”

They added that the extended Selfie Check-In™ window alone made a huge difference:

“Being able to register students up to 60 days after the event helped us capture sales we would have missed.”

Would they use this workflow again?

“100%.”

🚀 Wrap-Up

This photo business proves that growth isn’t always about shooting more photos or booking bigger crowds. Sometimes, it’s about working smarter—using tools that connect families with their memories faster and easier than ever.

👉 Ready to see what NowCandid™ can do for your next graduation event? Start here »

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.

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