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Participant
May 13, 2025
Question

Multiple rejections

  • May 13, 2025
  • 5 replies
  • 367 views

Hi everyone.. been contributing for years and recently started getting rejections for over 50% of the submissions with Quality category...

 

Attaching few examples, hope you can help point out what's wrong here? Much appreciated!

 

 

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5 replies

RALPH_L
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 26, 2025

Also, the first three photos will require IP releases. The waterfalls have underexposed shadows.

Abambo
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 26, 2025

 

Also, the first three photos will require IP releases. The waterfalls have underexposed shadows.


By @RALPH_L

The second is more like a skyline picture. The two modern buildings are not exactly the focus of attention and as such, that picture should not need a property release IMHO.

 

The first one would earn an IP violation refusal because of the sculpture in the foreground, the third one may earn an IP violation because of the single modern building in the middle of the picture.

 

And just to say: the three first assets also have issues with the framing. This is especially true with the first one.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
Abambo
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 26, 2025

Your first should or could also earn an IP refusal.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
yamato713108855
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 14, 2025

I recently submitted a photo as well, but even though there were less than three similar photos, they were all rejected.
It seems that you have to be very strict and carefully select the photos you submit.

daniellei4510
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 14, 2025

For what it's worth, @yamato713108855, I've had over 100 "too similar" rejections to date, which has lowered my acceptance from 98% to 96%. Still nothing to be ashamed of, but it is aggravating. I'd be closing in at 99% had those same assets been accepted. In any event, to date, I have resubmitted 7 of those 100+ rejected assets, of which 5 were ultimately accepted. I did the following with the 5 accepted assets:

 

1) Made what I would call creative edits, as opposed to fixing errors, since there were really none to begin with; this might involve changing eye color, smoothing out clothing a bit more than really needed, etc.

2) Resaved the edited images as entirely new files with entirely new file names

3) Gave the resubmitted assets entirely new titles while still remaining true to the subject

4) Gave the resubmitted asset a spattering of new keywords that were placed near the top of the list, while the original keywords were moved to the bottom or eliminated if weak (Alexa and Siri come in handy here, with suggestions for synonyms to make up for my lack of a strong vocabulary)

 

The last two or three steps are intended to circumvent any real or imagined algorithm that might be storing titles and keywords and looking for repetitive examples of the same. Likewise, I also depend less and less on Adobe's keyword suggestions, which often tend to be vague, highly generalized, and often times unrelated to the assets in question.

 

Of course, none of this is scientific evidence, and my recent acceptances might very well be every bit as random as the reasoning behind their initial rejection. But it's probably worth noting that the two assets that were rejected a second time for being too similar were simply resubmitted without changes to the file, the keywords, or the titles.

 

Finally, I would end by saying that I am resubmitting the rejected assets interspersed with new assets as well (which still sometimes get rejected for being too similar, so I'm not making a lot of headway). Point being, I wouldn't recommend anyone with 50+ assets rejected as too similar to resubmit them all at once, even with my recommended suggestions.

Adobe Community Expert | If you can't fix it, hide it; if you can't hide it, delete it.
daniellei4510
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 13, 2025

"been contributing for years and recently started getting rejections for over 50% of the submissions with Quality category"

 

You and seemingly many others who've been regular contributors. Either for quality issues or assets that are "too similar" to others in the database.  Though @Jill_C 's comments are correct, Adobe appears to have set even stricter requirements in general. That said, you might open up the shadows a bit on the waterfall images.

Adobe Community Expert | If you can't fix it, hide it; if you can't hide it, delete it.
Jill_C
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 13, 2025

In the first image I'm seeing some splotchy artifacts in the sky which seems to be oversaturated.

The second image has some color fringing among the branches.

The third has some spots, probably birds, but they look like sensor spots, so should be removed.

Jill C., Forum Volunteer