Constructive criticism for a rejected photo

Greetings Senara, 

Thanks for sharing your beautiful photo. 

Let me start with some facts, no one here knows how much human or AI, adobe is using today to evaluate new assets, what I do know with almost certainty, is that it is not the same they were using a couple of years ago... back to this later.

Another fact is that your photo is absolutely gorgeous! Yes you could have tweaked it a little, but those would be adjustments any buyer could make depending on the image final usage.

I suspect the black background triggered some algorithyn that automated the rejection.

I took a look at your photos metadata, and for a beginner I can see you did everything right. Perhaps you got lucky, or perhaps you're one in 100... people that from the begining have a clear sense that's able to be translated into a photo.

The majority of us are the 99%, we fell in love equally with photography, but our earlier shots were only great to us, with little to offer everyone else.

I'd like to encourage you with the last fact, 100% of new photogrpahers need to shoot shot shoot and keep shooting more.

As it is with any craft, the more we do it the better we get.

My best advice is to hear all opinions, thank everyone, and whatever doesn't make sense... flush it!

Just focus on continuing to getting better, being kind to yourself by understanding that not everything that you shoot

will be great.

As for this photo... let me say that I have been a commercial photographer for 30+ years, so I know a little about what I'm talking about. I did a search on: small dogs against black backgrounds and in the first 3 pages 70% or more were creepy perfect, fake and beautiful AI generated pixels.  And yes there might be a zillion other dog photos, but I can assure you none are like yours, and yours will stand out in any grouping.

 I suggest some minor adjustments to your photo:  brightten your subject a little, I'd use curves, add bit more contrast,

and use the burn tool to darken the top 1/3 of the image making the black solid. Then wait a week or two, and resubmit the photo at a different time you did the first time.

I am not recommending you do what I've done, but I've had multiple images that were rejected 1,2, and 3 times, then approved on the 4th.   

I'd love to see more of your work, so don't hesitate to sharing more with me.

COngratulations on your photo, and have an awesome weekend!