A subsidiary of Redwood City, California-based Shutterfly Inc., the company provides photography for families, schools, and places of worship; has over 22,000 employees; and operates in all 50 states as well as in Canada.

They chose the Upper Midwest to launch their business, a predominantly rural area with fewer professional photographers and thus potential for greater opportunity.

Following World War II in 1945, the founders mortgaged their personal property and stretched the company's credit line to offer approximately 80% of their salesmen (returning veterans) no-interest financing for cars and down payments to buy homes.

With the help of Kodak, NSS developed the school photography industry's first cluster lens printer, making it possible to print multiple photos from a single exposure.

[20] Upon the sudden death of founder Eldon Rothgeb in 1972, Richard P. Erickson, a NSS territory manager, was named vice president of sales and marketing to develop plans for consistent growth and profitability.

The major advantage was that data could be applied to negatives in barcode, which Micro-Z printers recognized, automatically printing the correct photo package.

As part of a new corporate development program, Kinderfoto International, a studio photography company, was acquired in 1983, which pushed NSS into retail marketing and promotion.

Next in line was Max Ward-Delmar, the leading supplier on the East Coast of undergraduate and senior portrait services, which was purchased in 1990, giving Lifetouch an office and lab in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Portrait Industries Corporation, a division of Max Ward-Delmar, gave Lifetouch a stronger presence in the preschool photography market.

[30][31] Portrait Industries, Inc. a company based in Mobile, Alabama, that specialized in preschool photography with national accounts such as Kindercare, La Petite, and Childtime, was acquired in the 1990s.

On November 9, 2011, Lifetouch Inc. announced that it had purchased the remaining assets of Olan Mills Photography, which included both its church directory and retail studio businesses.

[36] In 2013, Lifetouch purchased many of the assets of shuttered competitor CPI Corp., who had operated retail portrait studios in Sears and Walmart stores.

[37] These assets included the brand PictureME, which has been relaunched as a chroma key-based background replacement family photography concept in some of its retail locations.

[42] The Lifetouch Memory Mission is an annual volunteer trip that provides humanitarian aid to underprivileged communities around the world.

Missions have since traveled to Appalachia, Jamaica, land of the Navajo, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and have assisted with Hurricane Katrina, floods in the Dakotas, fires in California, and tornadoes across the Midwest.