Known Participant

Question

CC on failed photo

Forum|Forum|20 days ago
June 1, 2026
5 replies
201 views

The attached photo was rejected for soft focus, filtering and artifacts. Can someone help me understand, especially filtering?

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

You get two bites at the apple.

If it’s rejected a 2nd time, move on to other content.

A 3rd submission could earn a strike for spamming.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

Do you shoot RAW pictures in manual mode with your camera firmly mounted to a tripod or monopod?

For Stock purposes, disable built-in camera filters & effects. Use minimal post-processing in Photoshop or Lightroom to fine tune image details & exposure. See Photo Editing Dos & Don’ts.

https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/editing-dos-and-dont.html

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

Inspiring_Brilliance157FAuthor

Known Participant

Yes, did I shoot raw. The photo was taken on a tripod with manual focus using the 2nd level of focus zoom and focus highlights. No filters or special effects on the camera.

There were very few changes made in Lightroom. Crop, subject brighten and background darkening and removed artifacts I did see (most likely pollen). That was about it.

This is the actual file submitted.

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

Your Histogram panel in Photoshop or Lightroom is a great lie detector for checking exposure.

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/discover/how-to-read-a-histogram.html

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

yamato713108855

Community Expert

I tried brightening it up.
Which do you prefer?

Inspiring_Brilliance157FAuthor

Known Participant

It’s good. Thank you. I am trying to understand my filtering and artifact issues.

O

Oh.N8

Hey @Inspiring_Brilliance157F
There are 9 million similar images as well.
https://stock.adobe.com/ie/search/images?filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aimage%5D=1&filters%5Bcontent_type%3Aphoto%5D=1&filters%5Bgentech%5D=exclude&native_visual_search=6a1d757cbf28f&search_type=visual-search-browse

The images need to be sharp and crisp.
Remember to provide some space for content either to the left or to the right.

Cheers

Nate

Inspiring_Brilliance157FAuthor

Known Participant

Thank you

I hoped I had focus nailed on this one. I guess not. I used a tripod and manual focus with a tight focus magnify to the center of the flower and focus highlights.

Like I added in my comments I couldn’t widen the shot due to the surrounding area. So I made a tight 1x1 framing so it could be used as a thumbnail. That was a suggestion from another commenter on another photo in this forum.

Is there a suggested % of the photo that should be left for user cropping?

This is the actual file submitted.

Inspiring_Brilliance157FAuthor

Known Participant

This photo is a copy I saved on my iPad. What I see in the attached is not as sharp as what is in the file submitted or what I see on the iPad. It was sized as a 1x1 to be used as a thumb due to surrounding objects that could not be avoided, a suggestion made by commenters on another submission.

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