Just wondering why...

Hello,

Just to add - you have to think commercially. Commercial value in the photo. Concept photos do well - with people in them.

Landscape photos, flowers, pets and so on don't do so well these days as there are gazillions of such themes!

Lack of commercial appeal - well, it is hard to determine what the appeal is - one man's junk is another man's treasure, and so on...

I must say, if you're really that worried about your image or idea being stolen, it's best you don't put it on the internet at all. Even had the image been accepted, the tools are readily available to remove water marks and enlarge screen shots to computer display and even printable sizes. Can this happen? Yes. WILL it happen? Extremely unlikely. If you prefer not to take the risk, you're only available option is to keep it off the internet and just show your work to friends and family. But where's the fun (or the potential profit) in that? 🙂

"Commercial appeal" means that Adobe does not think that the asset would fit into their database. There is normally no obvious defect in the image. The refusal does not mean that it is a bad picture, even that I have seen many pictures, where I would say that they have a lack of commercial appeal. 

I would suggest that you just move on. There is no appeal process. The category is meaningless and if you mislabel, you get a different refusal.

@Jill_C is right, it's very challenging to speculate without seeing the image.  You could even PM it to a few of us who contribute often if that would make you more comfortable.  No pressure either way though.

It's possible that there are quality issues as well as a lack of commercial appeal.  The moderators only choose one rejection reason, but there could be multiple rejection reasons.

I'm willing to bet that Adobe is pretty in tune with what does and doesn't sell well.  They probably have access to any number of metrics about what people are searching for and purchasing.  The Artists Hub is a great place to see what is in demand, if you haven't visited already it's pretty informative.

On the other hand, I shoot primarily for other uses and submit what I create to Stock as a secondary outlet.  For me, whatever gets accepted is great, but what gets rejected I move on from.  Only in the last year or so have I started considering Stock use as I'm shooting at a location.  I usually take some shots for my portfolio, and then consider if there is a composition that is better suited for Stock while I'm there.

I know I didn't exactly answer your question, but I hope some of that is helpful.  I absolutely hear you that rejections can be disheartening, but hang in there!  There is some trial and error involved until you get a feel for what Adobe is looking for.

Cheers!

If you don't upload the image here, no one can comment as to its commercial appeal. No one comes here to "steal" ideas from other contributors. The category, such as landscape, animals, food, etc. is irrelevant and not really used at all by Adobe buyers to search for images, so would not have mattered to the Moderator. Moderators evaluate an image on its merits, and don't concern themselves with whether or not your title and keywords are germane to the image. There is no appeal process. You can re-edit and resubmit the image and try again; however resubmitting the same image repeatedly can get you accused of spamming the database which can get your account shut down.