Why Adobe Stock reject good photos?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
March 25, 2025
4 replies
485 views

I retouched a series of photos according to Adobe Stock guidelines, minimal sharpness, denoising, removing chromatic aberration, colour correction... everything a little bit like in their instructions. + minimalist shots with free space, and they still rejected these photos (quality problem) (50 pieces). Is it because they were taken with a Canon 600D which has worse quality and sharpness? I have a lot of photos and I want to upload them before I switch to a Sony mirrorless camera for good, but I'm worried that I'll do the work on Sony and they'll reject everything too. And I think they're really PRO

I was surprised today when Alamy accepted these photos that Adobe Stock rejected. Here they are:

(moderator deleted external link)

What's wrong with them for Adobe?

and at the same time Adobe accepted one of my worst photo with huge chromatic aberration and a terrible shot:

https://stock.adobe.com/pl/images/wooden-obstacle-course-with-hanging-red-wheels-in-public-park/1305577532

and at the same time Adobe accepts AI upscaled images with artifacts in the details

I wanted to create Pro portfolio on Adobe but it looks that like they deliberately don't want to accept the best photos

[Moderator moved the thread to the correct forum]

Contributors

Abambo

Community Expert

Alamy is not Adobe stock and they have a different moderation method.

I agree with you, however, that Adobe accepts too many bad generative AI pictures.

If you want that we have a look into your picture, post ONE together with the refusal reason and we will have a look into that. The camera is never a reason for a refusal.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

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Douglas Spranger

Participant

I hear you. Your photos are excellent! I also had Adobe Stock reject my scanned, underwater Kodachrome slides, shot with Nikkor gear and 105 Micro lenses, each at nearly 50 MB, then converted per their requirement to PNG's. Still in the 20 to 40 MB range. They rejected ALL of them, citing not high enough resolution. Here's a low-res example. I do have 'stock' with Alamy, and one of their affiliated did the scans!!!

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Douglas Spranger

Participant

Maybe I'll try posting my absolute worst photos (of anything) and see what happens.

daniellei4510

Community Expert

You may have read a post by somone one who only suggested they have.

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

daniellei4510

Community Expert

As I'm sure you're aware, you are not addressing Adobe here but contributors like yourself. Yes, Adobe sometimes accepts and rejects photos that leave us scratching our heads as to why not and why? If you post two or three here, perhaps we can offer some insights. As for assets being accepted (and even sold) on other sites, we are talking two different animals with two different requirements and standards.

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