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Weekly Recap: Introducing PhotoGlo™ Premium Prints & Plaques ✨🖼️

Weekly Recap: Introducing PhotoGlo™ Premium Prints & Plaques ✨🖼️
Hey photo friends! 👋


Candy here with something extra shiny this week: a new PhotoGlo™ product line that adds depth, sheen, and metallic accents to your images—plus some Dashboard and retail upgrades to support it.

Let’s start with the fun stuff. 😏

✨ New PhotoGlo™ Products

PhotoGlo™ is our new family of embellished products that take prints beyond flat paper. These products can include:

  • 🎨 Thick color varnishes on specific areas to add depth and a glossy “raised” feel
  • ✨ Metallic foil printing for high-shine metal accents that catch the light and draw the eye

First up in the line:

  • 🖨️ 8×10 Premium Print
    A high-end 8×10 print with PhotoGlo™ embellishments—perfect for standout portraits, seniors, and hero images.
  • 🪧 Premium Plaque
    A mounted plaque (about 9.5×11.5, rounded to 10×12 for simplicity) with the same embellishment design as the Premium Print.

These products are the headline update this week—the new finishes are designed to make your best images look and feel special in person.

Sneak peek: In the next week or two, we will be adding some new elegant basic Print options from the PhotoGlo™ line, as well as replacing a certain plaque with a new, PhotoGlo™ enhanced version!

🌀 3D Renders to Show Off PhotoGlo™

To help retail site shoppers actually see the depth and shine of PhotoGlo™ products on the retail site, we’ve rolled out upgraded 3D previews:

📦 Live 3D product renders

For Premium Print and Premium Plaque, the 3D preview supports:

  • • BGR backgrounds
  • • Crops
  • • Captions
  • • Primary colors / accents

🖥️ Where 3D appears

  • • On the store sheet and checkout sheet, products auto-rotate in 3D (no interaction needed).
  • • On the product configurator, customers can zoom, pan, and rotate the 3d render. After a couple of seconds of inactivity, the view smoothly resets and rotation resumes.

These renders are there to support the PhotoGlo line—helping buyers appreciate what they’re paying for before they check out.

Wanna take a closer look? Click here to view a demo! (app.nowcandid.com/3d/premium-plaque-print)

🛍️ Retail Tweaks

🧱 New desktop layout while customers customize products

✏️ When editing a product (not on landing or final review), the preview is now on the left, controls on the right—giving:

  • • Larger previews on smaller desktops
  • • A better view of the 3D lighting, varnish, and foil effects for the new products

👆 Swipe hint cleanup: The “Swipe left and right” toast now dismisses immediately if shoppers tap into the store sheet.

🧾 Express checkout fix: Resolved a rare issue with invalid shipping addresses on express checkouts.

🖥️ Dashboard Improvements

Faster image loading on events with very large image counts.

🧰 Manage Images – Tools & Extras popup:

  • • Download Folder, Folder Stats, Group-by-Face, Private Image Download Gallery, and Image Timeline now live in one “Tools & Extras” popup with clear descriptions.

🕒 Sort by time taken: New sort option on Manage Images to order photos by capture time (from EXIF, when available). Images without a timestamp are hidden from this specific sort view.

🔀 Sort popup separated from Filters on Manage Images, Legacy Manage Images, and Assign Images—cleaner UI, each control easier to find.

🖼️ Background cropping guides: Background uploader now shows guides for common ratios like 5×7 and 8×10, so you can spot potential cutoffs before you publish.

📊 Event sales & stats modal:

  • • Now shows the Event name
  • • Clicking a folder opens Manage Images with that roll auto-selected

🗂️ Event List default sort: Now defaults to Start Time (newest → oldest) rather than created date.

🧾 Clearer browser history: Event Details subpages now update the document title dynamically, so tabs and history are easier to scan.

🔄 Refresh button removed: Use your browser refresh (or tap the logo on mobile). One less button, same control.

That’s the scoop for this week!

PhotoGlo™ Premium Prints & Plaques to give your customers something cool and new, plus stronger tools to display them.

Keep creating beautiful things,
Candy 🍬

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Learn How NowCandid Can Help You Remarket Your Pre-NowCandid Images🌟
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April 22, 2024

Learn How NowCandid Can Help You Remarket Your Pre-NowCandid Images🌟

8
 minutes read

For those who are new to NowCandid, let me tell you that NowCandid does a lot to help you continue to make sales on the images that you put through our system!

Things such as:

  • Long-Term Hosting: We keep galleries online for at least 15 years.
  • Ongoing Marketing: Annual Event reminders & occasional consolidated Event marketing.
  • Sales Reinforcement: "Order More" QR codes on print products to encourage reorders.

So, if you're using NowCandid for your current and future Events, those Events are all set to generate plenty of residual sales as the years go by!

However, did you know that NowCandid can be used to easily remarket images from your past, pre-NowCandid Events?

As a photographer, you have probably used other software and sales solutions in the past. That's okay! NowCandid is not a jealous business partner, and we are just happy you're here for us to help you now.

So let's talk about how we can help you get more sales out of those past Events of yours.

The Power of Remarketing 🔄

First off, let me say that this will only work in situations where you have:

  • Pictures of Individuals: Such as headshots or portraits.
  • Corresponding Contact Information: You need to know which contact info goes with which image files.

If you have past Events with those two things readily available, then you can use our oft overlooked FaceMatch Import Workflow to create what we often call a FaceGroup in your NowCandid Dashboard.

You can then use that FaceGroup (pictures of individuals corresponding to an uploaded set of contact information) in any of your NowCandid Events!

Meaning... you could create a NowCandid Event, utilize a FaceGroup of some school picture headshots you did, and then upload to that Event that class's graduation pictures, school pictures, dance pictures, or anything else you'd like to remarket!

Once the "reference images" from your FaceGroup are in the Event as well as your past images of that same group of people - the images will match up using our Face Matching processes and begin a marketing campaign and sales effort that will help you generate some sales on those old images right now, as well as occasional residual sales over the years and years to come.

Your Portfolio, Forever Profitable 💼

As an example, a new NowCandid user performed the exact processes we described above to "remarket" graduation pictures from 4 of the graduations they photographed last year.

Within a month of remarketing those 2023 images, this user generated about $1300 in sales and shipping!

That $1300 will be in addition to the sales they will be able to make as the years go by, thanks to the residual sales tactics we mentioned earlier.

Unlocking New Sales with Old Memories 🔑

So, if you dear reader are in a position to utilize some of the portraits and contact info you've collected in the past, consider using NowCandid to remarket them! Doesn't matter if they're 1, 3, 5, or even 10+ years old.

NowCandid does not charge you any subscription or hosting fees, so even if you were to make $0 in sales, it won't cost you a thing.

We only make money when you do, and we only want to help you earn more and work less!

Get Started Now 🚀

Ready to give your vintage images a new lease on life? Schedule a walkthrough with our specialist, Darwin, and let's get those images working for you once more. Click here to book your session: NowCandid Training

NowCandid is committed to helping you earn more with less effort. Let’s turn those archived galleries into a flourishing sales channel, starting now!
Graduation Success: Candid Color Photography's Triumph at an Oklahoma Advancement Ceremony
Success Stories
April 17, 2024

Graduation Success: Candid Color Photography's Triumph at an Oklahoma Advancement Ceremony

7
 minutes read
Candid Color Photography (CCP) in Oklahoma City recently orchestrated a resounding success at a local medical school's advancement ceremony.

With only 100 graduates attending the ceremony, CCP generated an impressive average revenue of roughly $49 per person in just 31 days. This achievement underscores the potential of graduation photography when executed well!

While $49 per graduate is incredible, aiming for $20 per graduate is a more consistent target to aim for and achieve for both high school and college graduations. This benchmark is attainable with proper execution, although many events (such as CCP's) can surpass this figure!

Candid Color Photography has been a longtime user of NowCandid & GradPics Now, and is able to get the most out of the program thanks to their experience with the platform! But even in the beginning, they were able to see immediate improvements when switching to NowCandid for their graduations. In 2022, CCP transitioned 82 graduation ceremonies to the GradPics Now program, resulting in a significant 22% increase in sales per person on average, compared to their previous year's sales per person at those same ceremonies.

This switch not only boosted their sales, but it also led to an ~8% discount in their previous production & software costs. NowCandid's Workflows also saved them countless hours in post-event labor compared to their previous workflows.

While there are many factors that can impact your sales averages, here are some of the most important ones CCP keeps in mind at every graduation ceremony they photograph.

Key Strategies for Graduation Photography Success

Quality of Images:

Ensure each photo is properly lit and tightly cropped to create sellable images that appeal to your buyers.

Efficient Data Collection:

Utilizing Selfie Check-In with high participation rates ensures efficient data collection and marketing opportunities. Positioning staff with QR codes at strategic points, like check-in or holding areas, can streamline the process and enhance participant engagement.

Selfie Check-In in combination with using our Capture & Upload app will also allow you to sell to parents and graduates during the ceremony! In our experience and research, speed is one of the most underrated factors in increasing your sales.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, using Selfie Check-In facilitates the next item in our list in a huge way.

Volume of Images:

Using Selfie Check-In frees you from the shackles of sequencing, alignment, and keeping things in order. With it, you can be free to photograph graduates in any order, and add as many extra shots of your subjects as you can.

Beyond standard portraits and handshake moments, with Selfie Check-In enables capturing dynamic processional shots, candid buddy images before the ceremony, and family celebrations post-event.  Employing multiple photographers can facilitate comprehensive coverage.

These extra photos can significantly increase sales volume, as more photos translate to more sales opportunities. In addition to more sales opportunities, it also creates bigger personalized galleries to be marketed to your subjects! Bigger personalized galleries means bigger orders from your buyers.

Preparation is Key:

Having all necessary materials ready, such as your Event's Selfie Check-In QR code, charged batteries and backup equipment, and a clear plan for photo stations, handshake photo timings, and post-ceremony family shots, is essential. Coordination with educational institutions for logistical and promotional support can also yield better outcomes.

Graduation Success Stories from CCP

CCP’s methodical approach has been mirrored in the experiences of individuals like Jason J., Eric M., and Bruce H., whose stories of successful graduation photography projects highlight the effectiveness of these strategies.

Read more about their graduation success stories:

     -     Jason J. - Using Face Matching to its Fullest

     -     Eric M. - School’s Out, Earnings In: A Teacher's GradPics Now Success

     -     Bruce H. - How Bruce H. Used GradPics Now to Increase Sales

By adopting CCP’s proven methods, photographers can transform any graduation event into an even more lucrative opportunity.
Crowning Moments: Turning Prom Night into Profit with NowCandid
PartyPics
April 10, 2024

Crowning Moments: Turning Prom Night into Profit with NowCandid

5
 minutes read
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.

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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How to customize formatting for each rich text

How to customize formatting for each rich text

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