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Participant
November 20, 2025
Question

Rejected Images

  • November 20, 2025
  • 4 replies
  • 148 views

After long time i decided to upload a batch of 5 pictures. Sadly enough all got rejected.

I wont claim i am the best photographer out there.

But i guess i had good ideas on what to upload and how to keyword my images.

With a small port of around 250 pics i managed to earn around 120 $ per year and have some fun. Around 90 of my uploaded images had at least one download. 

Nowadays photos that would have been accepted one year ago (and generated sales) are rejected.

I guess my style of photogprahy is probably not any more of interest to Adobe Stock and i ll have to find a new hobby!

 

4 replies

Nancy OShea
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 20, 2025

I won't sugar coat it.  It's much tougher now that Stock's inventory has grown to over 800 million assets.  There's not much content left that they don't already have in generous supply. 

 

To be successful, work in reverse. First, find something Stock needs and then fill it. 

It will require some homework to search the database for keywords that have little representation. But it's more likely to be accepted if it meets Stock's quality standards.

 

Something to think about.

 

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
Abambo
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 20, 2025

If they get rejected for similar, don't bother, we all get that refusal.

 

If they get rejected for quality or anything else, feel free to post an assets here, and we will have a look into it. Your sales figueres seem to be good, so your pèhotography talent can't be bad.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
Inspiring
November 20, 2025

The best photographer is not the one who wins here, it´s the most consistent that do.

Let me try to realistically encourage you. First I empahsize I´m not making comparisons, just sharing data information and experience.

Based on your numbers, you have earned $ from about 35% of the assets you´ve uploaded. Way superior than my case

which is barely 12%.

My advice is that you take a close look at what has sold, and continue focusing on that as you try new things.  You must set  goals (realistic)  for how many assets you will upload on a monthly basis, and align that with striving for increase in sales.

 

My personal goal in May was to upload 100 assets per month for the rest of the year, (which I have been doing), and reaching 100 assets sold per month by December, which I'm super excited to see I have a very good chance of reaching that goal this month. 

I'm still new here, I started in January of this year, and the most exciting fact I am verifying, is that the more your sales go up, the more the algorythms will push your work in front of buyers. I have also learned that what I thought would sell more hasnt sell, and the shots I thought would sell the least are selling.  This is awesome data because I am able to focuse more in  shooting what is selling.

Also, in my opinion, there are too many AI assets already, and Adobe is mostly rejecting those, which is great for me given I have only have 3 that have been accepted. So I suggest that if that's your thing, you become the best in it, as you pay very close attention to AI generations.

 

I admit that as a professional career photographer my shooting habits are homedin... but I can also tell you that I am having as more fun shooting stock, perhaps even more than when I started many sumers ago.

 

So don't be discourage, only you can shoot and submit Doram's work. Photography is an awesome hobby, but also so much more. So if you stick to it (if you feel the passion) your rewards will be greater than you realize.

Share some of your work either here, or feel free to message me directly.

Cheers!

Francisco ZALEZPHOTO
daniellei4510
Community Expert
Community Expert
November 20, 2025

Over the last few months, Adobe has become more strict over what does and does not get accepted. Upload a couple of the rejections if you would like some feedback on what might be needed to get them accepted.

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