Somewhere, a couple has just given your photo five stars.
They don’t know your name, your studio or your follower count. They liked your image. That is exactly how people find you here.
Why join stavelens?
We are not trying to build one more directory.
Fearless, ispwp, wpja and the like have been doing their job very well for years: awards, juries, peer recognition that has to be earned. We are not trying to compete with them.
We are trying something different, and perhaps complementary. Directories celebrate what your peers admire. stavelens reveals what couples love: your style, recognised by the people who will actually hire you.
How does it work?
It all starts with your photos. You upload them, and algorithms identify the style of each one: light, emotion, approach, composition and dozens of other parameters. Human eyes then check every analysis before anything goes live.
Then comes stavelens. Couples rate wedding photos there, one at a time. No name, no caption: the photo, and nothing else. Vote after vote, stavelens studies the couple’s preferences across a multitude of parameters and refines the selection with ever more relevant photos. At the end, it reveals the photographers whose style, taken as a whole, matches their taste.
Taste is not an exact science, and we will never tell you otherwise. What stavelens does is observe what couples really love, image after image, and continually refine, vote after vote, the match between their preferences and photographers’ styles.
When a couple contacts you after finding you here, it is through your images, regardless of your name or your visibility. And in our view, the healthiest way to start.
One price. For everyone.
- 109 €
- 119 $
- 95 £
- 99 CHF
Everything included.
Your country/region, included. stavelens works best with 50 photographers at most: beyond that, the test gets too long and less accurate. When a country has more, the couple enters the wedding location and the Finder shows them the nearest photographers first. In the United States, the unit is the large region: Northeast, Midwest, South or West.
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Each additional region or country: 50% of the annual fee.
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5 countries at most.
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An additional region or country never buys a better position, only access to couples elsewhere. Everywhere, everyone plays by the same rules.
The stavelens project
Roadmap
2024-2025
Development begins
First versions of the matching algorithm.
2026
Large-scale testing
Hundreds of thousands of simulated sessions, several vision models, dozens of audits.
November 2026
Launch version
Opening and invitation of photographers.
Spring 2027
Final version
stavelens leaves its launch version.
2028-2029
Evolution
Evolution and refinement of the algorithm and new features to come.
stavelens
What we are building
stavelens runs on an infrastructure unlike that of a classic directory.
Behind every image, every vote and every match, there is an infrastructure that needs very real resources. As the community grows, we will scale this infrastructure accordingly, adding more computing power whenever it is needed, so that couples always enjoy a smooth experience.
The Finder and the analysis of your photos rely on our own algorithms, developed and run on our machines, in Switzerland.
Your photos are never handed to any external AI service.
The server is hosted by Infomaniak, an ethical cloud powered by renewable energy.
You are not ranked.
You are discovered.
Online sign-up. Your profile is published once our team has verified it.
01Are photographers simply ranked by the number of votes they receive?
No. stavelens does not work like a scoreboard where photographers move up simply because they collected more votes.
Each choice reveals something about the couple’s preferences. stavelens looks for the connections between the images they like, their characteristics and the styles of the photographers who made them.
Two couples can therefore make very different choices and receive completely different recommendations. A photographer who receives fewer votes overall can be a particularly strong match for a given couple.
Taste is not an exact science. stavelens does not try to decide who is “the best” photographer, but whose work fits each couple best.
02How does stavelens understand what I like?
Every vote is one more small piece of information.
As the selection goes on, stavelens observes the connections between your choices and the characteristics of the images you liked. It does not only look at how many times a photographer was chosen, but at what your choices have in common.
The selection evolves as you answer, with images that come closer and closer to your preferences.
We do not detail exactly how the algorithm works. It is an essential part of the technology we are building. But its principle is simple: not asking you to describe your style, but trying to understand it through the images you like.
03Why can’t I simply browse the list of photographers?
Because it would completely change the way stavelens works.
We do not want you to discover a photo already knowing who took it, how many followers the photographer has or what reputation they enjoy.
On stavelens, you discover the images first. The photographers come afterwards.
If you could simply browse a list of photographers, stavelens would end up being one more directory. And that is precisely what we are trying to do differently.
04How was the stavelens membership fee set?
We tried to offer the most accessible price possible, while allowing stavelens to fund its infrastructure and its development.
Our algorithms are developed specifically for stavelens and run on our own infrastructure. This lets us keep our costs under control and offer one simple price, the same for everyone.
05Is stavelens an artificial intelligence?
No, not in the sense of an external AI service such as ChatGPT or Claude.
stavelens relies on an algorithm developed and programmed specifically for this task. It analyses wedding images and looks for matches between the photographers’ work and the couples’ preferences.
The algorithm was developed, tested and optimised specifically for stavelens.
Your photos are not handed over to an external AI service.
06Is there an option to pay more and get more visibility?
No.
There is no Light, Pro, Extra or Ultimate version.
There is no boost, no sponsored position and no plan that lets you buy more visibility.
There is only one version of stavelens, the same for everyone.
This is essential for stavelens: every photographer must have the same chance of being discovered. Visibility must come from the images and the couples’ preferences, never from the amount paid.
07How are the photos chosen during the vote?
At the start, the photos are shown at random, but fairly between photographers.
Then, vote after vote, the selection narrows. stavelens observes the couple’s choices and gradually proposes images that are more and more relevant to their preferences.
08Does stavelens always give a result?
No.
Sometimes the votes contradict each other, or the person was not really moved by any photo. No clear preference then emerges.
In that case, stavelens prefers to say so honestly rather than suggest a photographer at all costs. The person can simply start a new session.
09What happens when a couple discovers a photographer?
The couple can then open their stavelens profile and discover more of their work, as well as the information they chose to present.
If they still like the style, they can then contact the photographer directly from their website.
stavelens does not try to replace that relationship. It simply lets you start with what matters most: the images.
The style seems to match. It is then up to the couple and the photographer to see whether the feeling is right, whether the dates work, and whether their expectations and prices are compatible.
10Why is stavelens called stavelens?
A stave is the set of lines on which music is written, and a lens refers to photography.
The musicality of the image.