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January 2, 2026
Question

Pictures rejected due to qualtity issues

  • January 2, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 342 views

Hello Forum, 

 

I tried to upload some of my pics to the Adobe Stock for the very first time. I am mainly into astro photography and thought the adobe stock could be a nice place to earn at least a bit of money with that  niche of a hobby.

So I was very upset to got 12 of my first 13 images rejected for quality issues. And yes there is one i maybe can understand that due to some noise on a widefild pic take at very low light. But there are some deep sky, sun and moon shots I think the quality is good.

And yes real astrophotography has some grain and flaws from time to time but that also was the reason I send them in under the "Science" category. 

I add one moon, sun and deep sky shot and maybe someone can tell me whats the reason the might be rejected. 

If it is for minor focus issues when pixel peeping or grain than maybe adobe stock isnt the right place for me. 

 

Greetings

Andreas

 

4 replies

Nancy OShea
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 4, 2026

Stock sells assets for use in commercial projects like product packaging, TV & billboard ads, marketing, & merchandise.   

 

This is what you're competing with in Stock inventory. 

https://stock.adobe.com/search?k=astrophotography

 

I'm unable to open attached files. This forum's viewer is broken. 

 

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
Abambo
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 3, 2026

The moonshot is underexposed. You should modify the moon's exposure. I think you have masked the moon, but it is not perfect, so when I modify the exposure, I get a kind of ugly halo around the moon. 

The sunshot is underexposed, too. And it has indeed grain and colour banding.

The deep sky image is also having exposure issues, you should modify the blacks and the highlights and the whites. You could start with adding some contrast and structure. 

 

I think you could address the issues, by carefully editing and masking what needs to stay untouched. Your pictures are quite impressive.

 

As a side note: the categories are useless. They have been grandfathered from Fotolia, but there is absolutly no discernable use of those. 

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
daniellei4510
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 2, 2026

Ditto what @Jill_C said, but I can understand where a less than experienced moderator might consider the "noise" to be excessive in the third image, while that same moderator may have a personal disliking for square formats (no room for a buyer to crop or add copy, though any competent graphic designer would be able to adjust the image as needed). But the rejection of the moon image stumps me completely. For what it's worth, I've also had at least a slight increase in assets rejected for quality issues where I could find nothing amiss.

Adobe Community Expert | If you aren't submitting your assets in sRGB, you probably didn't read the rules.
January 3, 2026

Thank you for your assessment. And yes, I had also thought of the image format, especially with the moon, as a possible reason. But to be honest, I only noticed it when I was looking through other images and noticed one where I enlarged the section myself.

Don't get me wrong, but as a first experience here, it's sobering. I know the images aren't the best ever seen in this field, but they can certainly compete with other images on the same theme here. Having 95% rejected isn't exactly motivating.
And I know you can only give advice and have nothing to do with such decisions.

 

Greetings
Andreas

 

daniellei4510
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 3, 2026

Keep trying. And remember: Adobe does not claim exclusivity of images they accept or reject. There are numerous other stock sites that are less strict with regard to quality issues, real or imagined, right or wrong.

Adobe Community Expert | If you aren't submitting your assets in sRGB, you probably didn't read the rules.
Jill_C
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 2, 2026

The rejections can at times be unreasonable and unfounded. I don't know what criteria Adobe Moderators use to judge such images, but they look good to me!

Jill C., Forum Volunteer