Known products

Iconic designs like an iPhone or the BWM front or the John Deer colour scheme won't get accepted, even if you photoshop the logo. I have a picture featuring my iPhone 6 and I had to photoshop the button to get it accepted.

Illustrative editorial content is a different category of assets, if you sit on a pile of pictures that could be interesting (like a gas station or similar) you can wait to submit them in that category. If you want to produce generally usable pictures, avoid those iconic designs. Sometimes it's simply worth to have an old no-name smartphone available instead of trying to figure out what iconic design element on the iPhone needs to be photoshopped.

"But what about some products that you can clearly know what that is even when there are no logos."

Most phones and laptops are not that different from one another, so unless it's a very specific design, just removing the brand/logo should be enough. I've submitted some and they were accepted without any problem. If you're still not sure, just upload one and see if it's accepted before editing/submitting other pictures from that series.

Some cars are easier to recognize than others, but it can be an issue only if they're the main subject. Cars in the street in a city shot should not normally cause the picture to be rejected, provided you obfuscate the license plates and brand logos.

"Or do I need to change the product a bit?"

Personally, I wouldn't do it for the simple reason that if it's really obvious what it is from the shape, it might required a lot of work to modify it enough for it not to be recognizable, obviously in a way that still looks good (coomercially attractive) and without introducing defects that might make it rejected for technical issues. Bottom line, too much work for an image that might never sell anyway.

For easily recognizable products, or to submit photos with brands/logos, you should consider submitting them as illustrative editorial content. The only requirement is to be a contributor with 100 or more downloads. If you're not there yet, just hang on to those pictures until you can submit them for that use.

More info at:

Adobe Stock illustrative editorial guidelines

Hope that helps,

Michael

_____________

Michael Niessen - Photographer, photo-editor, educator