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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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Weekly Recap: Tap-A-Face from the Dashboard & Smarter Roster Contacts 👤✨
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Weekly Recap: Tap-A-Face from the Dashboard & Smarter Roster Contacts 👤✨

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Hey there, photo friends!

This week’s updates are small but mighty—because behind the scenes we’re cooking up some bigger projects that we can’t wait to share with you soon.

For now, here’s what’s fresh in your NowCandid™ Dashboard:

👆 Tap-A-Face… from the Web Dashboard!

You’ve always loved Tap-A-Face in the field—now you can do it right from your Dashboard.

From any image’s Image Details Page, head to the Participants tab and click the new Add via Tap-A-Face button. From there:

  1. Click a spot on the image where a face is
  2. Enter the contact info for the person

This will instantly create a new Participant in your Event, kick off Face Matching™, and start marketing their gallery right away. 📸💌

Manage Images -> Details, Logs, and More-> Participants -> Add via Tap-A-Face

📇 Roster Contacts, Upgraded

Contacts you add through Rosters are now much easier to work with! They’ll behave just like your regular Contacts & Participants—meaning:

  • They’re fully editable
  • They can be assigned multiple images without the previous first-image requirement

No more clunky workarounds—just smoother, faster contact management. 🙌

This change will also improve adding Contacts via the "Create Participant" button, as well as Contacts who add themselves to the Event via a Positive ID Event's Simple Check-In.

These kinds of Contacts will just show a silhouette for now, which we may adjust down the line!

That’s it for this week!

Stay tuned—because some very cool things are coming your way soon. 👀✨

Keep being amazing,

Candy 🍬

Weekly Recap: PhotoCoach Support, Acrylic Puzzles & More! 🧠🧩
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Weekly Recap: PhotoCoach Support, Acrylic Puzzles & More! 🧠🧩

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Hey there, photo friends!

Candy here with some sweet new updates from your NowCandid™ Dashboard.

We've got a powerful new coaching tool, a fun new product to sell, and a bunch of workflow-boosting fixes to round it out.

Let’s dive in! ✨

🆕 New Feature: PhotoCoach

Introducing PhotoCoach—your new secret weapon for improving the quality of your photographers’ photos over time! 🧠📷

With PhotoCoach, you can:

  • • Review images from your Events and flag them with issues like "Acceptable," “Duplicate,” “Exposure Issue,” “Cropping Issue” and more (and make your own categories too!)
  • • Track photographer photo quality over time
  • • Send automatic feedback reports to your photographers with a breakdown of image counts & issue counts

It’s perfect for helping your team take more sellable images—leading to happier clients and stronger sales!

Find it now under Tools & More on your Dashboard and start coaching like a pro. 💪

Note: PhotoCoach is not new for CORE™ users (CORE™ is our sister-software at Candid Color Systems™), but it's new to NowCandid™! And it's had some feature improvements recently so it is now web-based! Woo!

It takes a little getting used to, but once you are, it's super easy and super fun!

🧩 NEW: 8×10 Acrylic-Backed Puzzle

Puzzle fans, rejoice! 🎉 You can now sell a 56-piece acrylic-backed 8×10 puzzle, complete with cute live-rendered previews on the retail site.

Why customers will love it:

  • Unique gift or keepsake
  • Durable acrylic & display-worthy

Even the little detahced pieces in the top right live-render, yay! - Theme: Liquorice

🔗 URL Filtering Just Got Smarter

Now when shoppers apply filters on the retail site, those filters update the URL automatically—making filtered views shareable with friends & family!

Not much more to say about this one, just a cool touch! :)

🛠️ Misc Tweaks & Fixes

A roundup of small but mighty changes:

  • 📥 Dynamic Personal Gallery Downloads can now be purchased by shoppers via Favorites!
    • A great addition for action sports—gives customers a “buy all” option that scales with the number of images selected, even when shopping from an All Gallery.
  • 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Group-by-Face filter popup now shows only unique faces
    • Applies to new Events only—re-run Group-by-Face on past Events if needed!
  • 🗂 BGR Folders are editable again via the “Edit Folder” option
  • 🖼 Retail site now scrolls past the cover photo if a filter is selected from the initial popup
    • A smoother experience when arriving to an All Images gallery
  • 🧍‍♀️ Selfie Check-In button transforms post-Face Matching
    • It now becomes a second Retail Site button after expiration
  • 🧾 Invoice History tool now displays all past invoices, not just recent ones

That’s everything for this week! 💫

Whether you're giving photo feedback, selling puzzles, or just tidying up your workflow—we’ve got your back.

More soon!
Candy 🍬

Weekly Recap: Filters for Faces, Jerseys, and PhotoTags ✨
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Weekly Recap: Filters for Faces, Jerseys, and PhotoTags ✨

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Candy here with your scoop on all the sweet new updates from this week! 🍬

Let’s get right into it...

📸 Big News: PhotoTags Now Work as a Filter!

PhotoTags just got a major glow-up! 🌟

Instead of being a separate tab, they’re now integrated directly into the Filters section on the All Images Gallery. That means they now play nicely alongside JerseyJotter™ and Group-by-Face!

Whether you're shopping for cheerleaders, bands, dancers, or any other tagged group—this change makes it smoother than ever to find just the photos you care about.

Did you know? NowCandid is headquartered in Oklahoma City! Thunder Up!

🧠 Big News: Group-by-Face is Now a Filter Too!

Group-by-Face fans rejoice! 🎭

Group-by-Face has been transformed into a Filter, too! Instead of whisking you away to a new page, selecting a face now just filters the All Images Gallery to show photos featuring that face. You can even browse faces via the Face filter menu.

And yes—it works with PhotoTags and JerseyJotter™, so you can filter for a specific face, a jersey number, AND a PhotoTag Group all at once. Woo!

Yup, it even got his blurry face over Cason Wallace's shoulder!

🧾 Big News: Invoice History in Profile Settings

Ever had an invoice go missing in your email inbox? We've got you covered!

You can now view and download past invoices directly from your Profile Settings page on the Web Dashboard. Whether you're keeping things tidy for tax season, tracking your account activity, or just trying to find that one receipt from a few months ago — this new Invoice History section gives you quick access to every invoice tied to your account.

No more digging through old emails. Just head to Settings → Profile → Invoice History and boom — organized, downloadable, and ready whenever you need it.

Another small quality-of-life boost to keep things running smoother behind the scenes. 🎟️✅

Accessible via Profile on the Web Dashboard.

⚙️ Other Notable Changes

🔍 “Looking for More?” Button + All Images Filter Popups

We’ve added a new “Looking for More?” button at the bottom of personal image galleries — perfect for subjects who didn’t find quite everything they were hoping for. If your Event has the All Images Gallery turned on, this button will guide shoppers over to that gallery for a broader look.

And with all the recent upgrades like PhotoTags™, Group-by-Face, JerseyJotter™, and improved gallery tools, we’re confident that the All Images view is more helpful and shoppable than ever before!

🎛️ Bonus: When filters are enabled for your Event, the All Images Tab and All Gallery URL will now open a popup that clearly explains what filtering options are available for that particular event — making discovery even easier for your customers.

Clicking any option will open up that Filter's popup as well!

🤳 “Is This the Face?” Popup

When someone takes or uploads a selfie for Selfie Check-In, we now ask them:

“Is this the face for which you want to find matching images?”

This simple question will reduce the number of parents who accidentally upload selfies of themselves instead of their child!

We'll keep trying to get parents to not upload their own selfies :)

📱 QR Code Download for All Images Gallery

New button alert! You can now easily download the All Images Gallery QR Code to share at events—perfect for action sports and other workflows that rely on promoting the All Images Gallery.

Accessible via "Retail Site" from an Event's Management page.

📦 Order Details Page Improvements

Want to know when an order was mailed out? You got it.

The Order Details page now shows the "mailed" timestamp when applicable, helping both photographers and customers stay informed.

Accessible via "Orders" from an Event's Management page.

🧰 Misc Fixes & Improvements

🧮 The JerseyJotter™' image counts when selecting Filters will now be affected by PhotoTag & Group-by-Face Filters as well

🫥 "Unassigned Images" count now excludes hidden/test images

💖 Favorites tab now works when picking images for multi-image products

🔒 GalleryGuard™ is all set for iOS26 — screenshot blocking stays strong

📴 Texting “NOPE” now unsubscribes users from all marketing campaigns

✨ New icon for AI-generated backgrounds — it’s clearer for those unfamiliar with the standard generative AI symbol

Did you know? We provide subjects with free AI background generation!

That’s it for this week!


As always, thanks for tagging along on all the improvements we’re rolling out to make your NowCandid experience smoother, smarter, and more fun 🎉

Cheers,
—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.

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