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Weekly Recap: Virtual Group Builder, Client Outreach Updates & Smarter Retail Support 🎉📸

Weekly Recap: Virtual Group Builder, Client Outreach Updates & Smarter Retail Support 🎉📸
Hey photo friends! 👋

This is a big week! The headline feature is one many sports and volume photographers are going to love: An all-new Virtual Group Builder is now available directly on the Dashboard.

We’ve also added new Candy Image Studio tools, improved Client Outreach behavior, refreshed image assignment tools, and made retail support easier for shoppers and photographers alike.

Let’s jump in!

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Big New Feature: Virtual Group Builder

You can now build Virtual Groups directly on the Dashboard — with Mobile Dashboard support too!

Find it from an Event page by clicking Virtual Groups in the sidebar menu.

With Virtual Group Builder, you can:

👥 Import participants from the full Event, one at a time, or everyone with a specific PhotoTag

✂️ Use participant cutouts to build polished group images

🏷️ Build groups quickly when your Event has consistent cutouts and participants tagged with PhotoTags

🖼️ Create Virtual Groups in 4×6, 5×7, 8×10, or 11×14 formats

🎨 Choose from NowCandid default backgrounds, upload custom backgrounds, and add overlays

🧢 Add account logos to the corners

🔤 Toggle subject names on or off

📐 Preview crop lines and aspect ratio lines

🖱️ Zoom, pan, drag, reorder, resize, brighten, and position subjects

You can also adjust group-level settings like background, overlay, overall scale, vertical position, bottom shadow falloff, and individual cutout fade to help hide cropped legs.

When your Event is set up cleanly with cutouts and PhotoTags, you can create a full Virtual Group in just a few clicks. ✨

Docs page: https://app.nowcandid.com/docs/image-management/virtual-groups

Desktop Dashboard view of the new Virtual Group Builder

Mobile Dashboard view of the new Virtual Group Builder

🎓 Candy Image Studio: New Graduation Tools

Candy Image Studio got some very timely upgrades for graduation season:

🎓 New “Diploma Fix” node

  • Helps fix diploma orientation and glare. You’ll need to upload a reference diploma so Candy knows what the diploma should look like, including details like school name, emblem, fonts, and colors.

🎗️ New “Tassel Fix” node

  • Helps adjust graduation tassels that are covering a subject’s face — similar to Stray Hair Removal, but tailored specifically for grad tassels.

👓 Improved Reduce Glass Glare

  • This node is now more reliable and less likely to accidentally add glasses to subjects who aren’t wearing them.

📣 Client Outreach Improvements

Client Outreach got a few useful updates to help save money and keep lists cleaner:

🚫 Unsubscribed contacts excluded by default

  • Imported Client Outreach contacts now exclude unsubscribed contacts unless you choose to include them.

🔘 New “Include unsubscribed contacts” toggle

  • You can still include them if needed, but the default helps avoid spending on contacts who can’t receive your outreach.

👀 Show Hidden on Client Lists

  • The Client Outreach list page now has a Show Hidden option, similar to Offers and PhotoRoster organizations.

🧭 Client List sidebar shortcut

  • The Client Outreach sidebar item now takes you back to the Client List page more clearly.

🖼️ Image Management & Dashboard Upgrades

🧩 Image Release Gallery redesign

  • The Image Release Gallery now uses a masonry layout like retail, supports lightboxes with arrow key navigation, has CMD/CTRL+F search support, and saves filters in the URL.

🧑‍💻 Manual Assignment page refresh

  • The Participant Manual Assignment page has a cleaner, more intuitive UI.

Camera star ratings on Image Details

  • If your camera includes star ratings, they now appear on the Image Details page.

⬇️ Image Details convenience buttons

  • Image Details now includes quick actions to download or open in Candy Image Studio.

🏷️ PhotoTag ampersand fix

  • PhotoTag names with ampersands now save correctly.

🧍 Merged participant name fix

  • Manual Assignment now shows the selected participant’s name instead of the first merged participant’s name.

🔙 Event sidebar remembers filters

  • When going back to the Event List from an Event Overview page, your filters are remembered as long as you haven’t refreshed.

🔁 Pricing tier reset button

  • Participant marketing history now includes a button to reset a participant’s pricing tier start date, useful if support wants to re-offer first-week pricing.

🪪 Positive ID QR Code downloader options

  • You can now download blank cards only, registered participants only, or everyone, making scan card PDFs easier to manage for multi-workflow sports events.

🛠️ New Tool: Image Converter

There’s a new tool under Tools & More → Image Converter.

Use it to:

🔄 Convert images to WEBP, PNG, or JPEG

🎨 Convert images to sRGB

Handy for preparing files before uploading them to NowCandid Events.

📚 New Capture App Camera Docs

We added a dedicated docs page for confirmed camera models that work with the Capture App.

More cameras may work than what’s listed, but this page focuses on models we’ve confirmed.

Docs page: https://app.nowcandid.com/docs/capture-app/cameras

🛍️ Retail Improvements

📬 New Contact Us form on retail

  • The Contact Us popup now includes a form that sends support an email with helpful details automatically included, such as browser info, window size, retail link, Event details, and order number when available. This should make support faster and reduce back-and-forth.

🖼️ Overlay step now comes before cropping

  • This prepares retail for future improvements while keeping product customization clearer.

🗓️ Smarter Year captions

  • Certain products now default the Year caption to the Event start year or participant Day 0 year instead of the current year. Helpful for late-December events or older graduation galleries.

🌍 International order fix

  • Fixed an edge case where some international orders could send multiple receipts and incorrectly show that the order wasn’t submitted.

🤳 Selfie Check-In & Capture App Updates

📶 Clearer Selfie Check-In upload errors

  • If a selfie upload fails, subjects now see a more specific error reason — like upload speed being too slow — so they know what to try next.

📱 Capture App 5.6.3 OTA update

  • Contact Info Settings now says Tap-A-Face or Type & Take based on the Event program
  • The 1000×1000 reference image requirement has been removed for Selfie Check-In Station and Roster Check-In, especially helpful for Android devices with lower-resolution cameras

That’s the week!

Virtual Group Builder is the big one, especially for sports and volume workflows — but between Client Outreach, Candy Image Studio, Image Converter, and retail support improvements, there’s a lot here to make your next Event easier to manage.

Keep creating magic,

Candy 🍬

Related articles

Weekly Recap: More Virtual Group Control, New Sports Backgrounds & Better BGR Tools 🏈✨
Feature Updates
August 14, 2026

Weekly Recap: More Virtual Group Control, New Sports Backgrounds & Better BGR Tools 🏈✨

5
 minutes read
Hey photo friends! 👋

Candy here with another weekly recap! This week brings more control to Virtual Group Builder, a much better home for Event Background Removal, new Candy Image Studio exposure tools, and—yes—27 new sports background sets. 😎

Let’s jump in!

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Virtual Group Builder Additions

Ask and you shall receive... sometimes! We’ve gotten some good feedback on Virtual Group Builder, and this week several new controls are here to make layouts easier to fine-tune:

↕️ Force subjects onto different rows

  • While dragging a subject, new Add to Row buttons appear over the other rows. Drop the subject there to explicitly move them where you want instead of relying entirely on automatic placement.
  • Previously you were limited to automatically determined rows, you still have those but can now override them!

🔍 New logo size slider

  • Adjust your corner logos to be smaller or larger than the default.
  • Previously they could be considered a bit tiny, but this gives you a bit more control!

🌫️ Individual cutout fade control

  • The Subject Inspector now has its own cutout fade intensity slider, separate from the global setting, so you can fine-tune individual subjects when needed.
  • This will let you tweak the cutout fade intensity for subjects in the front row or on the sides of the virtual group, in case you're wanting a very specific look.

👥 Smarter merged-participant image selection

  • The Subject Image Picker will only show images from merged participants when they share the same name.
  • This typically does not matter, but in the case of a parent doing a Selfie Check-In of themselves and then of their child later, this will keep Virtual Groups working as expected!

Just a few additions, but very useful ones when you’re trying to get a Virtual Group looking just right!

Drag and drop subjects into other rows for more control than ever!

New options to more quickly space out your subjects!

When viewing subject details, adjust them by individual!

Control the size of your logos!

🏈 27 New Sports Background Sets

Alright, shoutout to the random guy who told me (me being Candy, in case you forgot!) that he didn’t like the backgrounds. We heard you! 😂

This week we’ve added 27 new sets of sports backgrounds, including a brand-new Sports – Locker Room background category.

And, in case you missed it, last week we also added an AI Background Generator so you can create entirely new, modern backgrounds of your own.

A quick reminder... you already have a lot of control over which backgrounds your customers actually see:

🎨 Edit the default backgrounds in your Offers

📤 Upload your own custom backgrounds at both the Offer-level and Event-level

🤖 Generate new backgrounds of your own with AI

🏈 Choose from our (now growing) collection of built-in choices

We have a TON of default backgrounds—and yes, many have been around for a while—but you’re never locked into using them. You can build your own look for your business, and we’ll keep adding new options over time too.

✂️ New Dedicated Background Removal Page

Event Background Removal now has its own dedicated Dashboard page, accessible from the Event Sidebar. It is not longer just a popup!

The BGR toggle on Event Overview will take you there too, giving all of these controls a little more breathing room.

On the new page, you can:

✅ Enable or disable Background Removal

🖼️ Manage your Event Backgrounds

🎨 See your Offer Backgrounds with a direct link to the Offer

📊 See how many cutouts have finished and how many are still processing

⏳ Watch a live progress bar while Background Removal is working

📂 See all valid Event folders and which ones are marked for Background Removal

And if your Event is a new Event: ✂️ You can mark an existing folder for Background Removal even if it already contains images!!!

🎨 Candy Image Studio: Better Exposure Fixes

🌙 New Fix Underexposure node

  • Helps recover images that came out too dark.

☀️ Fix Overexposure greatly improved

  • The existing overexposure tool has been reworked for more reliable results.

Utilize Candy Image Studio to fix images so they can sell, quickly and affordably!

🏈 Jersey Jotter Progress Tracking

New Jersey Jotter progress bar

  • When Jersey Jotter is active and still has unprocessed images, its dedicated page now shows processing progress—similar to Candy Culler and the new Background Removal page.

This makes it much easier to tell whether recognition is still working through a large Event.

🛍️ Retail Improvements

Titled Luxe Prints now work with package prefill

  • Packages can now automatically prefill eligible Titled Luxe Print products just like other supported products.

🖼️ Titled Luxe Print package rendering fixed

  • Fixed an issue where these products could render incorrectly inside packages.

🤖 AI-generated backgrounds now render correctly on products

🎨 Selected backgrounds now stay visible through the final product step

  • Fixed an issue where the chosen background could sometimes disappear on renders when reaching quantity and finish steps.

📝 Several product descriptions updated

  • Some product descriptions have been refreshed for better clarity.

🖼️ AI Edit + BGR Assignment Fix

👥 BGR versions of AI edits now keep direct participant assignments

  • If the original non-AI image was directly assigned to someone, its Background Removed AI-edited version will now correctly inherit that relationship.

📦 Order Details Fix

📝 Package captions now display correctly

  • Fixed cases where Order Details did not show caption information for certain products contained inside packages.

📱 Capture App 5.9.1 – iOS OTA

📸 Photo Booth fix for iPad

  • Fixed the Photo Booth gallery strip being cut off on certain iPad models.

That’s the week!

More Virtual Group control, a much stronger Background Removal workflow, some useful exposure tools, and plenty of fresh sports backgrounds to work with.

And if you still don’t like the backgrounds... now you’ve got plenty of ways to show us how it’s done. 😉

Keep creating magic,

Candy 🍬

Weekly Recap: Reworked Titled Luxe Prints, Better Cutouts & Faster PhotoRoster Imports ✨📸
Feature Updates
August 7, 2026

Weekly Recap: Reworked Titled Luxe Prints, Better Cutouts & Faster PhotoRoster Imports ✨📸

4
 minutes read
Hey photo friends! 👋

Candy here with another round of updates! This week’s highlights include a fresh redesign for Titled Luxe Prints, a brand-new 4×6 size, continued Background Removal improvements, and some helpful Dashboard upgrades for PhotoRosters, Event Tags, and Positive ID workflows.

✨ Titled Luxe Prints Get a Refresh

Titled Luxe Prints have been reworked to feel more like the classic PartyPics style while still keeping the premium embellishments that make them special.

🖼️ Updated Titled Luxe Print design

  • Still embellished
  • Still supports 3 caption lines
  • Still includes 2 crests
  • Now has a more traditional PartyPics-style look

🆕 New 4×6 Titled Luxe Print

  • Priced at $1.38
  • Includes both 2D and 3D renders
  • Joins the existing 5×7 and 8×10 sizes

You can preview the updated product here:
https://app.nowcandid.com/3d/titled-luxe-print

✂️ Background Removal Keeps Getting Better

🟢 Green screen cutouts improved (again!)

Overall cutout quality improved

We’re continuing to tune Background Removal so cutouts look cleaner across more shooting conditions. Stay tuned for even more improvements!

📱 Capture App 5.9.1 – Android

📷 Full-quality internal camera capture

  • Android devices now use the full available quality of their internal cameras when shooting through the Capture App.
  • Previously, it was using a down-sized version!

🖥️ Dashboard Improvements

🪪 Faster Positive ID Scanner Card generation

  • The Scanner ID Workflow's Scan Card PDF Generator is now performs better, stalls less, and produces significantly smaller download files.

⚠️ Background artwork warning

  • When uploading an Event background, NowCandid can now detect text or logos and show an extra warning.
  • This reinforces the existing recommendation to avoid placing important text or branding on backgrounds where product cropping could cut it off. Use our Overlay features instead!

Clearer Auto Editor folder naming

  • Manage Images now shows a sparkles icon for Folders containing AI edits, with clearer formatting for Folders created by the Auto Editor.

📥 Import PhotoRosters directly from Participant List

  • Face Matching Events now have an Import from PhotoRoster button at the top of the Participant List page, letting you select and import a PhotoRoster without navigating away.

🎨 Candy Image Studio & Auto Editor

🖼️ Background Generator improvements

  • Outputs are now sized more appropriately for uploading back into an Event
  • Generated background sets match each other more consistently

💰 Every node now displays its price

  • Previously, only discounted nodes showed pricing. Now every node clearly displays what it costs!
  • Expect more nodes with their own unique prices in the future! We will continue to build on and improve our Auto Edit & Image Studio tools.

🧩 Predetermined node order

  • Nodes can no longer be drag-and-dropped into different edit "orders".
  • Their hierarchy is now set automatically so edits run in the best possible sequence without you needing to think about it!

🛠️ Auto Editor UI refreshed

  • Several interface changes make setup and options clearer and easier to understand.

📋 PhotoRoster Improvements

👥 Multiple PhotoRosters per Event

  • Fixed an issue that could prevent you from importing more than one PhotoRoster into the same Event.

💬 Clearer disabled export messaging

  • If Export is unavailable, clicking it now explains why.

🚫 Empty PhotoRosters can’t be exported

  • A PhotoRoster must have at least one member with an image before it can be exported to an Event.

🔐 Password-Protected Public Event Lists

Event Tags now have an optional extra layer of privacy:

🔑 Password-protect your Public Event List Pages:

  • ➕ Set a password while creating a new Event Tag
  • ✏️ OR add or remove the password using the Event Tag editor

This works similarly to the password protection for your Private Image Download Galleries.

🛍️ Retail Fixes & Protection

🖼️ Fixed package editing edge cases where the Overlay step could be missing while choosing a new image

🛡️ Additional GalleryGuard improvements

That’s the week!

The refreshed Titled Luxe Prints are the star of this update, with better Background Removal, easier PhotoRoster importing, and more control over Event Tags rounding things out.

Keep creating magic,

Candy 🍬

Weekly Recap: Better AI Edits, New Background Removal Workflows & Virtual Group Undo/Redo 🎨✨
Feature Updates
July 31, 2026

Weekly Recap: Better AI Edits, New Background Removal Workflows & Virtual Group Undo/Redo 🎨✨

3
 minutes read
Hey photo friends! 👋

Candy here with this week’s updates! The biggest changes are in Candy Image Studio and Auto Editor, where several popular edits now cost less, produce more consistent results, and work more naturally with Background Removal workflows.

We’ve also added undo and redo to Virtual Group Builder, improved green screen cutouts, and cleaned up a few retail download issues.

Let’s take a look!

🎨 Candy Image Studio: Better Results & New Lower-Cost Edits

Several Candy Image Studio nodes have been reworked with more consistent output quality and new discounted pricing.

Improved Black & White edits — now 4¢

  • Both existing Black & White nodes have been rebuilt to produce more reliable, consistent results.

Improved Retouch — now 6¢

  • The Retouch node now produces much more consistent results and is available at a lower price.

🎞️ New 35mm Film node — 4¢

  • The previous Film Style node has been replaced with a new and improved 35mm Film treatment.

📸 New Clarendon node — 4¢

  • Apply a look inspired by the familiar Clarendon-style social media filter.

💳 More flexible edit pricing

Some nodes now display their own lower price. Candy Image Studio charges based on the highest-priced node included in the edit.

For example:

  • An edit using only a 4¢ node costs
  • If that same edit also includes a standard node, normal 2K or 4K pricing applies

This lets simpler edits cost less when you're not using the more advanced edits!

✂️ New Background Removal Options for AI Edits

Candy Image Studio and Auto Editor now work more closely with Events using Background Removal folders.

🖼️ Candy Image Studio can send an edit into Background Removal

  • When editing an Event image, a new option appears beneath Mark Original Invisible if the Event has Background Removal folders enabled.
  • Select Mark Destination Folder as Background Removal Folder to upload the edited image into a folder that will also process it for background removal.

⚙️ Auto Editor adds a Background Removal size option

  • If Background Removal folders are enabled, you can choose Background Removal. Edited images will then upload into a folder marked for Background Removal.

🛠️ Auto Editor folder fix

  • Auto Edits now run properly on original images inside folders marked for Background Removal. Auto Editor still does not run on the completed cutout images themselves.

All of the new node pricing and quality improvements in Candy Image Studio also apply to Auto Editor, since Auto Editor is powered by the same system.

↩️ Virtual Group Builder: Undo & Redo

Virtual Group Builder now supports familiar keyboard shortcuts:

  • ↩️ Undo: CMD/CTRL + Z
  • ↪️ Redo: CMD/CTRL + Shift + Z
  • ↪️ Redo: CMD/CTRL + Y

This makes it much easier to experiment with layouts and quickly reverse an adjustment.

🖼️ Manage Images Improvement

⬇️ Download Original for BGR and AI images

  • The Manage Images lightbox now includes a Download Original button for Background Removal and AI-edited images.

You can access the original file without needing to leave the lightbox or track it down manually.

✂️ Background Removal Improvement

🟢 Better green screen cutouts

  • Background Removal now handles images more effectively when the background is only partially green screen instead of completely green.

🛍️ Retail Download Fixes

📥 Improved QuicEvents press-and-hold downloads

  • Download behavior is more reliable on desktop and Android for Events without artwork.

🖼️ Free Gallery Download resolution fixed

  • Free Gallery Downloads on QuicEvents now correctly deliver full-resolution images instead of medium resolution.

🧲 Photo Magnet artwork fix

  • Photo Magnets will no longer be ordered with Event artwork when Use Artwork by Default is enabled, since artwork is not supported on that product.

📱 Mobile Dashboard 4.1 for Android

💰 New “Cha Ching” notification sound

  • Weekly order notifications on Android now include the same Cha Ching sound effect already available on iOS.

👉 Swipe to open the Sidebar

  • Swipe inward from the left edge of the screen to open the Sidebar, matching the iOS experience.

🤖 Google Play compatibility updates

  • The app also includes required changes for the latest Google Play requirements.

That’s the week!

Lower-cost AI edits, stronger and more consistent results, and better Background Removal integration should make Candy Image Studio and Auto Editor more useful for both one-off fixes and larger Event workflows.

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
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This is a link

This is bold text