Adobe Stock file rejection reasons
All files submitted to Adobe Stock go through a review process to ensure that the content meets Adobe’s quality standards. You should receive a notification within five business days (excluding weekends and holidays) about the status of your submitted content.
This article provides additional information about the reasons why we reject certain files. It lets you know what we look for when we review content to help you become a successful contributor to Adobe Stock.
Technical issues
When we reject a file based on technical issues, it means that we identified technical flaws other than focus, exposure, or artifacts issues, which we call out specifically. Technical issues include but aren’t limited to:
- White balance: The white balance may be too warm or too cool.
When you shoot in raw formats, you have great flexibility to adjust the white balance in your post-processing workflows.
- Contrast: There may be too much or not enough contrast.
- Saturation: Oversaturation may give your file an unnatural look, but undersaturated or spot color can also result in technical decline.
You may want try the Vibrance slider instead of Saturation in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
- Chromatic aberration: This refers to color fringing around objects in the image.
- General composition: Is your horizon straight? Have you cropped the image too much? You should leave the designer room to add his/her own text or objects. Did you submit the image in horizontal orientation when it should have been vertical? You can resolve this in Photoshop and then re-save the image with the correct orientation.
Image out of focus
Always inspect your content at 100% before submitting.
Motion blur can be used to convey speed and motion in an image, but when you use it you should ensure that the main subject is sharp and in focus.
A shallow depth of field can help draw the viewer’s eye to where you want it to go, but depth of field should be intentional. If you shoot at a wide aperture, depth of field should enhance the photo—it shouldn’t result in important elements of the image being out of focus.
For sharper images, use a tripod or monopod when possible. Faster shutter speeds certainly help, but it’s important to note that one way to increase your shutter speed can be to increase your aperture, which in turn increases the depth of field. You need to find the right balance to ensure maximum quality. You can also increase your shutter speed by increasing the ISO, but if you set it too high, it may introduce noise or artifacts.
Get to know the limits of your camera. Don’t be afraid to push your work to the edge of those limits, but be careful not to go (too far) over them.
Artifacts problem
The most common artifacts problem is excessive noise, which causes the image to look grainy. This is typically caused by a high ISO setting for images captured in low-light situations. Get to know the limitations of your camera. Most cameras are excessively noisy at ISO 1600, and some at lower settings.
Another reason for artifacts is sensor dust. The smallest speck of dust on your sensor can cause spots on your image. Sensor dust spots can be removed in post-processing, but a simpler solution is to keep your sensor clean. We recommend that you check with your local camera store for cleaning options and advice.
Exposure problem
Too much light (overexposure) or not enough (underexposure) can greatly diminish the overall quality of a photograph. Check your histogram, or take a look at the image onscreen while shooting to ensure that you’re exposing your images properly.
Shutter speed, aperture, and ISO are the three main factors that determine exposure. Whether you’re dealing with ambient light or studio light, learn the best way to adjust the exposure of your images to accurately display the scene you’re capturing.
In many cases, especially if you shoot in raw formats, you have the flexibility to adjust exposure using Lightroom or Photoshop in your post-production workflow.
Similar image(s) already submitted
It can be difficult to narrow down a set of images from a shoot, but don’t submit them all.
Select only the best photos of the batch and ensure that each one offers its own unique value to a customer. For vector art, we accept up to three color variations of the same image, but for photos we ask that you avoid submitting multiple copies of the same image with different post-processing effects applied, such as changing the image to black and white. Designers prefer to add effects themselves to match their projects.
Sending multiple copies of identical content can be perceived as image spam, and may result in your account being permanently blocked or closed entirely.
Aesthetic or commercial appeal
Ask yourself: “If I were the customer, why would I buy this image?
If you can’t answer that question, we recommend that you adjust your shoot to capture images with more commercial value. Look at all the elements of your image. You could have a shot of a great-looking family enjoying a barbecue in a backyard. But if the barbecue is covered in rust and the grass is filled with weeds, the commercial value of the image is greatly reduced.
Common subjects like flowers, house pets, sunsets, and food are already heavily represented on Adobe Stock. New submissions for these categories can get approved, but only if they stand out and show the common subjects in unique ways. There must be a wow factor.
Non-compliant image(s)
Your content doesn’t comply with our Terms of Use. This may be due to inappropriate or irrelevant keywords or image titles, or questionable or defamatory content. Please review our Terms carefully prior to submitting files.
Intellectual property refusal
If your files contain certain elements that are protected by intellectual property laws, we can’t accept them into our collection. Please review the following intellectual property rights guidelines and also familiarize yourself with the information in our Known Image Restrictions document.
Protected elements can be certain objects depicted in an image as well as protected terms (like names or trademarks) in the image’s description, title, and/or keywords. Here are some examples of subjects protected by intellectual property laws:
Products and objects
Commercial products (e.g., toys, fashion items, electronic devices, and designer furniture) should never be in focus and/or be the main subject of the content if they’re identifiable and distinctive in visual appearance, like shape or color.
Trademark, trade dress, and intellectual property
We can’t accept any appearance of logos, trademarks, or company or brand names (e.g., Apple, Nike, Gucci, and BMW) in your images. This includes identifiable packaging and other product dress. You can digitally remove certain trademarks and logos before you submit your photos, but some objects can’t be depicted at all, because they can be recognized even without a logo, such as the brown uniform of a UPS delivery person. Please see our Known Image Restrictions document for more information.
Locations, venues, monuments, and landmarks
Ticketed locations with paid admission—like zoos, museums, and amusement parks—often have photography restrictions. Images require property releases when they depict unique locations with distinctive features in an identifiable manner, including but not limited to identifiable enclosures, installations, and animals.
We can’t accept some photos of landmarks and monuments, depending on the location, artist, age, and all other relevant restrictions. It’s your responsibility to find out if any photography restrictions apply.
Architecture and buildings
Modern architecture with unique building structures requires a release when it’s the main focus of the image. However, depending on the specific situation, city vistas, skylines, and close-ups may be fine.
Copyrighted objects
We won’t accept images depicting or originating from artworks, sculptures, street art, drawings, illustrations, literature, fonts, and graphic elements if you’re not the original creator, or have uploaded a property release with your file.
These measures are in place to protect you, our contributor, as well as our customers and Adobe Stock. Please feel free to submit images that adhere to these guidelines in the future.
For more information, please read our property release requirements and check out our Known Image Restrictions document.
