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GradPics™ Best Practices Guide 🎓

GradPics™ Best Practices Guide 🎓
🎓 GradPics™ Best Practices Guide 🎓

Hey there, photographers!

Candy here, and Graduation season is right around the corner, and we're here to help you nail it with GradPics™!

Follow this handy guide filled with proven tips, tricks, and best practices to maximize your success and make your ceremony shoots smooth and profitable!

📸 Why GradPics™?

Before diving in, if you're curious about why GradPics™ is your best bet, check out this informative post. Here's the quick rundown:

  • Fast and easy Selfie Check-In™ collects accurate contact info.
  • Real-time photo uploads (or post-ceremony)—your choice!
  • Instant personalized gallery marketing and effective consent for Face Matching™.
  • FREE background removal for portrait stations.
  • No subscription fees or hefty e-commerce charges.

Simply put: It's easy, effective, and boosts your sales!

🤳 Mastering Selfie Check-In™

Selfie Check-In™ is essential to marketing your photos effectively. Follow these critical tips:

  • • Avoid sending pre-event Selfie Check-In links. It can cause day-of confusion and reduces day-of participation, making it harder to get 90%+ participation.
  • • Collect check-ins on the ceremony day at the venue’s holding area. Grads should show you the "confetti screen" to confirm completion.
  • • Print your QR code clearly on a reusable sign. Need signs? We've got you covered here!
  • • Always test your QR codes to confirm they're linked to the correct event.

Why it matters:
  • Collects accurate, updated contact info (personal and family).
  • Far superior to school-provided rosters featuring old contact info, no cell numbers, and edus.
  • Enables personalized gallery marketing, dramatically improving sales.

📢 Effective Communication with Schools

Collaborate proactively with school staff—graduation speakers, event coordinators, and volunteers—to ensure successful Selfie Check-In™ participation:

  • • Clearly explain the benefits—they want smooth photo distribution almost as much as you do!
  • • Offer schools the collected alumni data to assist their future marketing and fundraising efforts.
  • • Ask schools to remind grads and parents about Selfie Check-In™ ahead of the ceremony.

🚀 Be Proactive, Not Passive

Relying on signs alone isn't enough! Take these additional steps:

  • • Hire staff or allocate your photography team to encourage grads to check in.
  • • Consider asking schools or parent associations for volunteer help.
  • • Send engaging videos, graphics, or flyers ahead of time (without the actual Selfie Check-In™ link) to prepare grads and parents about what to expect.
  • • Prepare your customers for day-of Selfie Check-In™ to achieve 90%+ participation.

🌟 Photography Essentials

Great photography drives sales! Here’s how you maximize photo opportunities with GradPics™:

  • • Capture a variety of shots: buddy shots, processionals, pre-stage portraits, handshake moments, post-stage portraits, friends & family shots.
  • • Coordinate with the handshake presenter: request grads and handshakers turn towards your camera for the perfect shot.
  • • Tap-a-Face feature: Use NowCandid’s™ capture app to market family group shots directly.

📡 Always Have a Backup Plan

Internet issues happen. Here's how you keep rolling smoothly:

  • • Provide physical Selfie Check-In™ cards.
  • • Inform grads they can complete Selfie Check-In™ after the ceremony online.
  • • Leverage offline-compatible devices (Capture App and upcoming Selfie Check-In Station™ can both collect info offline).
  • • Work with schools to post Selfie Check-In™ links post-event if needed (available 30+ days).
  • • Enable Group-by-Face™ to simplify navigation within "All Images" galleries.

💲 Pricing Right for Maximum Revenue

Pricing too high can limit your sales. Remember:
  • • Avoid the temptation of setting premium prices for all of your graduations.
  • • Appropriate premium pricing is suitable only for certain graduations (law or medical schools).
  • • Lower prices can significantly boost your overall sales volume.

Real Example:

Now to be fair, this event was not a graduation - but he point still stands!

A recent customer lowered digital download prices from $26 to $20, resulting in:

  • • More orders overall
  • • 20% increase in total revenue
  • • Happier clients and long-term marketing benefits & residual sales

🗓️ Need Extra Help?

We’re here to support your success. Schedule a chat about graduation season and GradPics™ at Calendly.

Happy shooting! 📷✨

Cheers and sparkles,

Candy

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Hey there, photo pros!

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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:
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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 🍬

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Candid Color Systems, Inc. has officially released PortraitPress! Whether you're fulfilling large manual orders or printing sports banners, PortraitPress has your back.

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🛒 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 🍬

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Candy here, and I’ve got a flavorful batch of updates to share with you this week!

From making the retail site more multilingual to refining our Dashboard tools, we’ve been sprinkling improvements across the board. Let’s take a look at what’s new! 👇

Retail Site Enhancements 🛍️

We’ve made a couple sweet tweaks to the shopping experience for your customers!

  • 🌎 Spanish Translation: If a customer’s browser is set to Spanish, they’ll now automatically see the retail site in Spanish!
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Capture App Update (v4.19.1) 📱

This was a tiny version bump—but it squashed a tricky little bug!

  • 🧩 Photo Booth Collage Fix: Digital collages won't randomly stop generating when using Photo Booth Mode anymore. Woohoo!

Web Dashboard Upgrades 💻

This week’s focus? Boosting clarity, visibility, and making things just a bit easier!

  • 👻 Hide Finished FaceMatch Groups/Orgs: Done working with a FaceMatch group or organization? Hide it from your view to keep things tidy.
  • 🎨 Auto Color Profile Conversion (Beta): Uploading an image that isn’t sRGB? NowCandid™ will try to convert it automatically. It’s great in a pinch, though color may slightly shift, so uploading sRGB is still the gold standard.

  • 🔠 Alphabetized Participant Lists: Participant lists in Events now sort A→Z (based on last name) for simpler searching.
  • 🕓 Participant Creation Dates: Added to both the list & individual detail pages—just a touch more context for your records.
  • 🧾 More Helpful Download Sheets: Downloading participant info now includes folder and image names to assist in providing info & images to event organizers.
  • 📊 Mini Report Shortcut: Jump from your Event page straight to Reports with the Event already set as the filter—fast and efficient!

  • 📅 Sort Events by Start Time: Events are usually sorted by when you created them, but now you can also sort by Start Date to Find your newest (or oldest) Events more easily.
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  • 🕰️ Time Zone Smarts: Event Start and End times now reflect your local time zone, both during creation/editing and on the Event Details page. Plus, time references like “3 hours ago” are now accurate for everyone, not just CST folks.

That’s it for this week’s round of upgrades and polish! 🌈


If you’re prepping for spring Events (👀 grad season!), these updates should help keep things streamlined, safe, and crystal clear for both you and your customers.

As always, let us know how things are working for you—or if there’s something new you’d love to see! 🧡

Until next time…

Cheers & sparkles,


Candy 🍬

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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

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