Terms & Conditions

These terms apply to everyone who uses LensCycle: clients booking photographers, photographers offering their work, and members taking part in competitions. By sending a booking inquiry, accepting an offer, or making a payment through LensCycle, you agree to them.

Your acceptance is recorded on the booking when you confirm your first payment. If you do not agree with these terms, please do not pay for a booking.

Visitor — anyone browsing LensCycle. Galleries, profiles and competitions can be read without an account.

Member — anyone with a LensCycle account. Members can save artists, send booking inquiries, pay for sessions, vote in competitions and, once they complete a Studio profile, enter competitions.

Client — a member acting as the buyer of a session: the person who sends the inquiry, accepts the offer, and pays. The client is responsible for the details, date and brief they give, and for the payments on that booking.

Photographer — a member with a Studio profile who publishes a portfolio, sets rates and availability, receives inquiries and takes bookings. Photographers have a public profile and may enter competitions; clients and photographers use the same account.

One person can be both. A photographer booking another photographer is the client on that booking, and every right and obligation in these terms applies to them in that role.

In these terms, "you" means the person using LensCycle in whichever role applies at the time.

A booking is an agreement between you and the photographer. LensCycle provides the platform, the conversation, and the payment processing.

Offers are paid by card. You can pay a 40% deposit to confirm the date and settle the remaining balance later, or pay the full amount up front. Once a payment completes, the booking is confirmed for the date shown.

The photographer is responsible for delivering the session as agreed. Payments are routed to the photographer's connected payout account.

To cancel a booking, request the cancellation in your booking conversation as early as possible. These terms apply to every paid booking, and contacting your photographer first can lead to a better outcome.

Your photographer confirms the fee that applies to a cancellation you request: 5% of the total offer, or the 40% deposit when you cancel within 10 days of the session. A 40% fee is never charged with more than 10 days' notice, and the 5% fee is charged as a minimum.

Cancellation fees are calculated on the total offer amount and are paid to your photographer. Anything else you have paid is returned to your original payment method. If your photographer cancels, you are refunded in full.

Entries must be your own work and must follow the theme and content rules of the competition they are entered into. Up to three entries per photographer is the limit.

Winners are decided purely by community votes. First place features the winning photograph as the hero image across the galleries front page for 72 hours after the results. Second place leads the artist list for 48 hours, and third place follows at second in the list for 24 hours, ahead of every other photographer. The prizes for each place are listed on the competition page.

Entries that break the rules may be hidden from voting.

If photographers are level on votes for a place in the top three, the places above the tie are locked to the photographers who won them and only the tied photographers go through to a short tie-break runoff. The votes they hold carry over as the runoff's opening tally, and its result settles the remaining places. A new competition opens every three weeks on a fixed rhythm in London time: entries open on Monday and close at the end of Tuesday, voting runs from Wednesday until Friday evening, and results are published on Friday. When a tie needs settling, the tied photographers vote through a 24-hour runoff on Saturday and the results are published on Sunday morning. If a runoff is still level, the earlier entry keeps the higher place.

You keep the rights to the photos you upload. By publishing a portfolio you grant LensCycle a licence to display those photos in the app.

Portfolio photos are stored privately and served through expiring links, with metadata stripped. You remain responsible for having the rights to everything you upload.

Every booking made through LensCycle is recorded on LensCycle: the inquiry, the conversation, the offer, the accepted terms, and the payments. That record is the authoritative account of what the parties agreed.

Conversations and arrangements conducted away from the platform — on messaging apps, social media, email, telephone or video calls, or in person — take place entirely outside LensCycle. They are made between the parties alone, are not reviewed, recorded, verified or enforced by LensCycle, and LensCycle is not a party to them, is not responsible for them, and accepts no liability for their content, performance or consequences.

Evidence of any such arrangement — including screenshots, forwarded messages, message exports, call recordings, photographs or any other proof of a deal — is not accepted by LensCycle as evidence of a booking, offer, acceptance, payment, cancellation, rescheduling, refund, fee or other variation of a booking. Only activity recorded on the platform will be relied on when we administer a booking, apply these terms, or consider a dispute.

Where these terms or a booking require a step to be taken on LensCycle — accepting these terms, accepting an offer, making a payment, requesting or responding to a cancellation or reschedule, or agreeing any variation — that step is effective only when completed on the platform through the account of the party taking it. Any assurance, promise or agreement given elsewhere, including that a payment will be made, that a session will be moved, or that a fee or refund will or will not apply, is not binding on LensCycle and does not alter the fees, rights or obligations set out in these terms.

LensCycle does not check, verify, vet or endorse the photographers listed on the platform. Credentials, qualifications, licences, insurance, professional memberships, identity, experience and the accuracy of any statement made in a profile or portfolio are not inspected by us. Anyone with a camera can register as a photographer and publish a portfolio.

You are responsible for satisfying yourself that a photographer is suitable for your project before you pay. Ask for references, request evidence of insurance or permits where the work requires them, and agree the brief, deliverables and any special requirements in the booking conversation. Where a session involves minors, sensitive locations, or work that needs a permit or insurance, confirm these directly with the photographer.

Take reasonable steps for your own safety when arranging and attending a session: meet in a public or professional setting, tell someone where you will be and when you expect to return, and end a session or decline a booking if you feel unsafe. Please only take a booking when you feel safe doing so.

Nothing on LensCycle is a guarantee of any photographer's conduct, competence or suitability, and to the fullest extent permitted by law we accept no liability for the acts or omissions of any photographer or client, save for liability that cannot lawfully be excluded. Our role is limited to providing the platform, the booking record and payment processing.

LensCycle is not the photographer and does not provide photographic services. Any dispute about the delivery, quality, or conduct of a session should first be raised directly with the photographer through the booking conversation.

We aim to keep the platform available at all times, but we cannot guarantee uninterrupted service.

We may update these terms from time to time. The version in force when you pay is the version that applies to your booking.

Questions about these terms or a specific booking can be sent through the Support page.