I don't think Adobe cares for real photos anymore. All that matters to them is AI.

I'm afraid you're right. The future holds a world of fake images for us.

How sad!

the better and bigger my portfolio becomes, the worse the sales become.

I had this same experience as you on Shutterstock and Istock,but not on Adobe.

on Istock I exceeded the minimum payout after just 5 months,that is,I earned at least 100 USD (more) right from the start,with around 500 images in 2018,when I had just started in microstock,then instead of improving with the increase of the contents got worse,until it stabilized,and even adding thousands more contents after years it's still the same,50 more or less,always the same thing every month.

From my experience,which may obviously be different for others,Adobe's sales system works better than any other agency,in particular I noticed that the fluctuations in monthly income are minimal,and once I reach a minimum monthly sales volume I no longer go below that.

I've never been able to interpret Shutterstock,especially with the new payment structure you can't understand anything anymore,it's all too random and there are long periods of months and months of nothing,and then at a certain point comes the month in which I sell whatever thing repeatedly,at prices that are out of the ordinary,and it is like this for the whole month...and then again the void!

It seems to me that in all the other agencies the microstock has become more a matter of luck than anything else,and it also seems to me that the only real agency where it is possible to build a business over time is Adobe Stock.

I hope it continues like this for me,because I need this job.

as my Adobe portfolio grows,my sales increase.

these are my impressions and my experience so far....now you can also shoot me if you want!

I agree with you. I am also a photographer with a small portfolio (around 5,000 images) selling a lot for 15 years.

The same thing happened to me for the first time last week with a batch of 15 images.

13 were rejected, and 2 were taken.

It had never happened to me. I have a nearly 100% approval rate at every agency.

I'm a professional; I shoot with a 60-megapixel camera and $2/3,000 lenses. I travel 30,000 km a year to shoot. Each image I upload requires 30 minutes/1 hour of postproduction with a $3000 desktop.

With this Adobe policy, my images that have always sold a lot are becoming invisible or rejected. Hidden by the sea of AI images (probably copied from some of our old images that were selling  ) that Adobe approves every day and which cost like peanuts. No photography equipment, no travel costs, no effort to learn the art of photography.

Thanks Adobe. In a few years, I would like to know from which art AI will copy.

you guys are getting images reviewed?  must be nice.

although it does suggest that it is a human reviewer and not a so called AI bot.

yes,they are human reviewers.

Quote from: Sandeel on October 19, 2023, 07:17

I still earn my livelihood with them

in my opinion you should be more than happy and satisfied to be able to say this sentence,and don't get angry about a rejected batch,it can happen.

I had uploaded a batch of 24 videos and a couple of days ago they rejected half of it.Honestly,i mostly stopped for 10 minutes to understand why,and then I moved on.

in any case you can be satisfied and happy to be able to say that phrase"I still earn my livelihood with them"wow!fantastic!

Well thanks, but for me it's not a game of luck, it's a profession and I know what I'm doing, what sells and what doesn't, at least for my content. This is my main job and has been for over 10 years. That batch that was rejected was the result of 2 weeks of very focussed work for me. And I stand by it: it's highly unprofessional on Adobe's part, and has nothing to do with me being lucky or grateful or happy.

I agree with you. I am also a photographer with a small portfolio (around 5,000 images) selling a lot for 15 years.

The same thing happened to me for the first time last week with a batch of 15 images.

13 were rejected, and 2 were taken.

It had never happened to me. I have a nearly 100% approval rate at every agency.

I'm a professional; I shoot with a 60-megapixel camera and $2/3,000 lenses. I travel 30,000 km a year to shoot. Each image I upload requires 30 minutes/1 hour of postproduction with a $3000 desktop.

With this Adobe policy, my images that have always sold a lot are becoming invisible or rejected. Hidden by the sea of AI images (probably copied from some of our old images that were selling  ) that Adobe approves every day and which cost like peanuts. No photography equipment, no travel costs, no effort to learn the art of photography.

Thanks Adobe. In a few years, I would like to know from which art AI will copy.

There are contributors who upload lots of content including series, like 50 shots of the same scene straight out of the camera and they get through. I'm not condemning it, it's a different approach to microstock, but for contributors like us who work a lot but don't go for that kind of quantity, our stuff gets buried heavily in the "most recent" search" all the time. All I'm saying is, it would be nice if Adobe could recognize and consider the type of contributor whose stuff they are reviewing. If you upload few files and sell a lot, they shouldn't reject anything from you, and maybe give the images a tiny little help to be seen by a few. There is so much they should reject but don't, and hey, why not, let others have their chance, but they could show a little fairness and balance.

Quote from: Injustice for all on October 19, 2023, 21:19

Quote from: Sandeel on October 19, 2023, 07:17

I still earn my livelihood with them

in my opinion you should be more than happy and satisfied to be able to say this sentence,and don't get angry about a rejected batch,it can happen.

I had uploaded a batch of 24 videos and a couple of days ago they rejected half of it.Honestly,i mostly stopped for 10 minutes to understand why,and then I moved on.

in any case you can be satisfied and happy to be able to say that phrase"I still earn my livelihood with them"wow!fantastic!

Well thanks, but for me it's not a game of luck, it's a profession and I know what I'm doing, what sells and what doesn't, at least for my content. This is my main job and has been for over 10 years. That batch that was rejected was the result of 2 weeks of very focussed work for me. And I stand by it: it's highly unprofessional on Adobe's part, and has nothing to do with me being lucky or grateful or happy.

everything depends mainly on luck in life,it's just that too often we don't realize it.
in this case you were unlucky because your batch of seasonal content was rejected,of course I understand it's heavy,send it again,I'm sure it will be approved.

I had been printing in the darkroom as a hobby since 1989,then as a profession,working in collaboration with ophthalmologists,then digital photography arrived,I abandoned photography and got involved in other projects,only many years later did I pick up the camera again.

I don't intend to make this mistake twice.

Today I survive mainly on microstock,I'm lucky that I live in my own house,no rent,but it's not easy,taxes in Italy are among the heaviest in Europe.

Quote from: Sandeel on October 19, 2023, 07:17

As a high volume seller with a rather small portfolio I put a lot of work into each image, and Adobe (or rather Fotolia) used to appreciate that, but nowadays it's getting ridiculous.

I'm in a completely similar situation to yours! In one of the topics I wrote that they began to ignore me 100% after I refused to give my works for free download.
Have you noticed this trend in yourself?
...

Wow, that's an interesting viewpoint. I had never considered that. I didn't opt in for the free downloads either, but I can't remember when this became a thing. Did they start it recently or years ago?

Wow, that's an interesting viewpoint. I had never considered that. I didn't opt in for the free downloads either, but I can't remember when this became a thing. Did they start it recently or years ago?

About four months ago I was offered for $5 to buy from me some photos selected by Adobe itself for free downloading. I refused, just like when they offered me about a year ago. Before this, my acceptance rate was 95-100%. Then it became 80%, then 60, 40, 10. And now the last 2.5 months - 0%. Moreover, the refusal was for the most incredible reasons. Works are checked for 2-3 months. Well, it doesn�t take much intelligence to guess that you are not welcome here. I stopped uploading work. I don't see the point in this. I think that this is a deliberate squeezing out of small animals that get underfoot.
My son works as a designer in one of the manufacturing companies. Yes, they download a very small number of stock photos, mostly from Shutter. But they swear at him a lot. Incorrect delivery, a lot of spam, a lot of similar ones. Finding the right photo takes a lot of time. They even take pictures themselves, using an iPhone. But if they are working on a serious project, they hire a photographer, and he works under their guidance.
Many photo stocks have closed their forums, the support is simply disgusting, some have completely fallen under artificial intelligence (BigStock). In a word, the authors were given big and thick... And what�s most monstrous is that the authors themselves are to blame for this. Stupidity and greed played a role.
I�m simply amazed at how much you have to disrespect yourself in order to give your works for free download, or upload numerous sets of vector graphics in one file.
If someone thinks that by mastering artificial intelligence he grabbed God by the beard, then I laugh at that. Very soon you too will be kicked in the butt with a heavy boot!

Quote from: erik trikowich on October 20, 2023, 10:49

Quote from: Sandeel on October 19, 2023, 07:17

As a high volume seller with a rather small portfolio I put a lot of work into each image, and Adobe (or rather Fotolia) used to appreciate that, but nowadays it's getting ridiculous.

I'm in a completely similar situation to yours! In one of the topics I wrote that they began to ignore me 100% after I refused to give my works for free download.
Have you noticed this trend in yourself?
...

Wow, that's an interesting viewpoint. I had never considered that. I didn't opt in for the free downloads either, but I can't remember when this became a thing. Did they start it recently or years ago?

 

no need for conspiracy theories - i've always been opted in and also get the batch rejects & long (2 month+) wait times. 

correlation is not causation, especally when it's anecdotal

no need for conspiracy theories - i've always been opted in and also get the batch rejects & long (2 month+) wait times. 

correlation is not causation, especally when it's anecdotal

Absolutely no theories, much less conspiracy! There is no need for this. If this concerns my message.
These are the realities of today, predatory business and expectations of good margins. If I had voluntary slaves, who knows, maybe I would have done the same.
You know, I love anecdot too! Let's wait and see what comes of this. Then we'll laugh together.

Quote from: Shuttershock on October 20, 2023, 13:51

The annoying part is the batch rejection, its not like just one of 2 images are rejected like the good days, now a whole batch of 25 will be rejected. It is as if the reviewer rejects one image so rejects all 25, no other logical reason.

The same thing happened to me a few years ago. 18 images - all different kinds - many of which have always been accepted over the years - all 18 were rejected. I had included a few in an entirely new style for me, that I suspect the reviewer didn't like them so rejected the whole batch.

Ever since then, I have uploaded one image per batch at a time. It is much more time-consuming, but it's something I have to do to prevent the arbitrary rejections you discuss above.

Might give this a go, I think uploading a batch of photos to Adobe is no longer viable due to their ignorant reviewers

Almost everything is rejected these days. Just simple vectors with abstract backgrounds passed, while quality files with lots of details and unique artistic style were refused because of a "quality issue". Part of them refused as "non-compilant vectors". Never happened before. 

What do you guys think, should I pause uploading and wait a little bit for a better reviewer or an improved review process? Even more important, is it allowed to try to reupload the rejected content?

It is interesting to see how, since the AI hype, people are popping up all over the net, including here, trying to tell the "old-timers" how the business works and how great AS has become.

I am sorry, but those of us who have been around for a while know AS and especially Fotolia very well.
But unfortunately I have to agree that AS has become much worse in many aspects and this has not only to do with the flood of AI images.

Especially from the customer's point of view. For example, the search in German has become so bad that you have to question whether there are beginners at work behind the scene. This has to do with some peculiarities of the German language, such as the way words are written together and other factors.
It is probably the same with other languages.
I wouldn't complain if it hadn't worked fine before, but this is just bumbling now.

yes I know,over the time and with experience many lose humility,they believe they know everything and they lose the ability to learn new things,and to face problems with clarity.

I bought my first reflex in 1987 and started printing in the darkroom in 1989,I'm nobody,I'm the last wheel on the wagon,but I know I can improve.

I like to face problems rationally,and when I see people giving in to paranoia and sci-fi visions,I also feel obliged to intervene to try to make people reflect on what seems logical and obvious to me.

Fotolia was a great agency,all my friends still speak well of it,I started in microstock when Adobe Stock was already here since a year,some friends who run annual photography contests are very happy with this change,because they already know Adobe very well as a company regardless.

Fotolia's times were simpler,today Adobe finds itself,like us,facing a multitude of changes,and from my point of view they are doing a great job,there are definitely a lot of mistakes,in the reviews,I have seen images accepted that probably should have been rejected,women with three legs or whatever,but in fact the situation is new for everyone,and they are certainly doing their utmost to bring everything back to normal,and act in the best possible way while respecting everyone's work,and that's enough to have all my support.

do you want to know why I act like this?because I learned on my back what it means to deal with those who have no respect for people,and I think I recognize when a company,or a microstock agency,acts with respect for people and of their work,as far as possible.

Three consecutive batches of my submissions, each standing for more than 30 days, have been reviewed. Almost everything in these batches has been rejected due to quality issues, with only one or two exceptions. Two batches were  regular photos, and one batch featured AI-generated content created with Firefly (and upscaled with GigaPixel). The vast majority has been declined due to quality problems. Interestingly, the approved photos had exactly the same quality and were accepted without issues on other stock sites such as Shutterstock, iStock, Dreamstime, and Deposit (for regular photos), some of which have already been sold. Previously, I maintained at least a 95% acceptance rate on Adobe Stock, which is now naturally declining.

What I find most ironic is this:

The database is now filled with AI junk (six fingers, "fruit" logos on laptops, etc.), yet they are now rejecting content created by their own Firefly due to quality problems.

There is clearly a change in the review process, but I wonder if this is the right direction. It seems like they might have lost their way a bit.

Update: Next batch of 13 images rejected as a whole!!!

Seriously?? Not a single image gets through? Is this the end?

Was it because they are autumn pictures and the review took so long that they are too late?

Mat, can you please explain to us what's going on?

Update: Next batch of 13 images rejected as a whole!!!

Seriously?? Not a single image gets through? Is this the end?

Was it because they are autumn pictures and the review took so long that they are too late?

Mat, can you please explain to us what's going on?

I would need to see the photos. Share them here and I'll be happy to provide a critique.

Thank you,

Mat Hayward

...

Quote from: MatHayward on October 25, 2023, 14:21

Quote from: Sandeel on October 25, 2023, 12:07

Update: Next batch of 13 images rejected as a whole!!!

Seriously?? Not a single image gets through? Is this the end?

Was it because they are autumn pictures and the review took so long that they are too late?

Mat, can you please explain to us what's going on?

I would need to see the photos. Share them here and I'll be happy to provide a critique.

Thank you,

Mat Hayward

Come on, Mat! I really appreciate your presence here and I am grateful for all the insights you provide. However, when it comes to review process, the way you act is just ridiculous. Instead of admitting that there is a problem with random rejections (not to mention months of waiting for any decision), you keep pretending that everything is fine. It doesn't matter what the quality of 13 images discussed here is. It is a general problem that affects, as far as I can see, all the members of this forum, even the most professional ones.

Fair enough. Thank you for your feedback.

-Mat Hayward

regarding the contents rejected by Adobe,I can only say my experience so far.

I haven't had any particular problems with rejections so far,I had photos and videos rejected and accepted in the normal level as always.

However,I am sure that the amount of content to be reviewed these days is considerable,and that mistakes will certainly have also been made,we are all human.

and I also know that it can really make you impatient at times,because you have worked on it,and when you see the rejections they are never pleasant.

I suppose that from the end of November the review situation will start to improve in time,not in quantity of rejections,but it's simply my idea,based on some things,which I won't be here to explain,also because I don't even know if that's the case.

from the beginning of next year in my opinion things will start to improve noticeably from all points of view.

but I repeat,these are just my ideas and considerations.

It is interesting to see how, since the AI hype, people are popping up all over the net, including here, trying to tell the "old-timers" how the business works and how great AS has become.

I am sorry, but those of us who have been around for a while know AS and especially Fotolia very well.
But unfortunately I have to agree that AS has become much worse in many aspects and this has not only to do with the flood of AI images.

Especially from the customer's point of view. For example, the search in German has become so bad that you have to question whether there are beginners at work behind the scene. This has to do with some peculiarities of the German language, such as the way words are written together and other factors.
It is probably the same with other languages.
I wouldn't complain if it hadn't worked fine before, but this is just bumbling now.

That's right! The translation does not work at all anymore! But this has nothing to do with complicated words, where the translation software has a hard time.
An example:
- Tuscany (search Region USA) = 417.000 results
- Toscana (search Region Italy) = 242.000 results
- Toskana (search Region Germany) = 37.000 results
If you do not do the keywording in English, you will not be found, because search terms from other languages will not be translated.

Mat, can you please comment on this?

Changing regions produces completely insane results

even the search from Italy for AI contents is different from yours.

"AI" search show 13.199.418 AI images and 128479 AI videos.

"IA"(intelligenza artificiale,Italian language) show 13.248.660 images.

This is one way the Adobe Stock sales system is perhaps supposed to work?Maybe there is a reason why the searches are different?Maybe not?

242.005 results for "Toscana" near home 

I have written a PM to Mat concerning this. I don�t know what to do because lots of my images with German keywording don�t appear in the search results. I loose lots of money.

I don't know Wilm,see what Mat tells you,but I don't see particular discrimination or particular problems in different searches results from different countries.

maybe there will be reasons,related to legal issues,marketing issues,or any other reasons.

What I know and what I see is that Adobe's sales system seems the fairest for everyone,if I compare this to other agencies.

Well, i think the translation problem is also detrimental to the agency AS.

If all customers know that they have to search in English, it is not a general problem. Then it is only a problem for the contributors who have been keywording in their native language for years.

But I think that many customers don't know that. Because it doesn't make sense that there is a language selection and a region selection if these potential buyers get less than 10% of the results displayed that are actually in the database.

This is comparable to a customer coming into a supermarket where less than 10% of the goods are visible relative to the goods actually present in the stockroom. There is a risk that these customers will go to the competition because there the shelves are bulging.

The discrimination thing was meant as a joke. Sorry - I probably should have used an appropriate emoji.

It is absolutely understandable for me that the search results must be different. A Central European family home usually looks different than one in the USA or Japan. This also applies to the topic of food and many other topics as well.

If I am a real estate agent in Germany, I search at AS optimally in German, because then I get more country-typical results displayed than with the English search - that also makes sense.

But if we stick to the example of Tuscany, it is not understandable that in Germany, the German name of Tuscany gets less than one tenth of the search results compared to the search with the English name of Tuscany. Because it doesn't matter whether I travel to Tuscany as a Turk, a Chinese or an Australian - it looks the same to everyone.

Maybe the dog ate Adobe Stock's homework, but I don't think that's why searching for Berlin - spelled the same in English and German - gets two different totals in two different regions. It's a bug - as are all the other examples in all likelihood.

Fotolia led all the other agencies in handling local sites where you could do business in the local language with local currency. The other agencies followed after they saw what a success that was. Having established that with both contributors and customers, it's expected that this will continue over time. As a buyer in Germany, you're not going to switch regions to see if there are more files available - you'll just assume that what you're shown is all there is.

And these bugs aren't new. I think when tailoring search results to promote "local" content was introduced a while back people started reporting problems with content not showing up (versus just different sort order preferences).

Adobe is a huge company and Adobe Stock is a very small cog in a very large system. Sometimes it doesn't get attention quickly/at all.

Quote from: kubeslaw on October 25, 2023, 14:58

Come on, Mat! I really appreciate your presence here and I am grateful for all the insights you provide. However, when it comes to review process, the way you act is just ridiculous. Instead of admitting that there is a problem with random rejections (not to mention months of waiting for any decision), you keep pretending that everything is fine. It doesn't matter what the quality of 13 images discussed here is. It is a general problem that affects, as far as I can see, all the members of this forum, even the most professional ones.

Fair enough. Thank you for your feedback.

-Mat Hayward

I really like the way and the time Mat takes to help, thanks Mat.
I can also understand Mat that you speak as an official voice from Adobe and you absolutely cannot say anything about your company, this is totally understandable.
Unfortunately I can confirm that the review process is still an issue: is it completely impossible to understand the reasons why some images are accepted and others aren't.

As many others said, I see some batches approved and others refused: entire batches.
The problem is not the rejections of one, two or ten images, rejections can always have good reasons: the problem is that the process seems completely random, and at the end it seems only a question of luck... images of the same kinds, with same postproduction, accepted and rejected for incomprehensible reasons...very frustrating, after one month of waiting for review.
I think you understand the point, and I think you're working on it.
Please fix it, because it's hard to contribute this way (and for someone it's also an open door to multiple spam resend of same images for second review!).
Thanks for your work

@derby

just out of curiosity,were the rejected batches real images or AI?

i've had multiple entire batches of photos rejected over last few months

just out of curiosity,were the rejected batches real images or AI?

Mostly AI

I'm writing it here too,because I think it's an interesting thing to know,because can be the reason for so many rejected contents.

in the terms for the account and submission guidelines I found this:"We don't allow multiple account creations to submit similar or identical content to inflate sales,or to bypass upload limits for generative AI content".

so now it is confirmed that there are AI content upload limits,therefore certainly limits in general on all content,so the trend I had noticed,that in the last months of the year the percentage of rejections increases,probably has to do with this.

In my opinion,all this has to do with Adobe's sales system,which obviously no one knows how it works,but is clearly linked to the number of contents uploaded.

It seems that things are going back to normal now. The last few batches have all been accepted.

I didn't pay too much attention to review speed, but I think it's fine. Approximately 3-4 days. A month ago, there was one batch with a longer reviewing period, but it did not exceed 10 days.

I think it is already fairly well known that there are upload limits. If you join the Discord community you will probably be more informed about this. Newbies have a limit of 50 files and it goes up from there depending on factors that AS does not disclose.

If it's really well known as you say,why do many people complain that there is all this rejection?

Why I have noticed that those who upload a lot of content towards the end of the year have an increased rejection rate?

of course there are upload limits for newbies,and of course there are set limits that probably depend on the sales that are made when the system favors you,the level you are at and how long you have opened the account,i.e. how long you have been an Adobe Stock contributor,the latter in my opinion is an important factor.

I also noticed that those who opened a Fotolia account 10 years ago,and uploaded few content,let's say a couple of thousand, then stopped uploading for many years,then when they started uploading again they started selling much more compared to those who have more content but have been contributors for less time.

Quote from: Her Ugliness on November 08, 2023, 05:36

Still about one month review time for me.

the review time may be linked somehow to the upload limits in my opinion,I don't know how much content you upload in a year.

For example,before AI,I uploaded about a thousand content in a year,and I always had much fewer rejections and shorter waiting times compared to others.

Maybe. But I never uploaded anywhere near the numbers of AI images some people here mention that they do and I never even came close to reaching any upload limit.

Not sure that's a factor. I do not know what it is, but apparently some contributors are treated very differently on Adobe than others.

Reviews are moving much faster now. This month, I had a batch of AI images approved in a week which totally surprised me. I only uploaded a little over twenty images and haven't uploaded much since late May due to ongoing vertigo, so my uploads for the year are low. I waited longer for regular non-AI illustrations to be approved back in mid-May, while photo reviews have been consistently speedy. It seems they've gotten the review process much closer to normal now, at least when not uploading hundreds of images at once.

I really jumped into using Adobe Firefly late last month and already have a few thousand to do a second cull through, then process and upload a small fraction of those. I did a huge batch the last few days and hope when I view them at 100% they are as good as they looked online on my laptop. Did a bunch of anthropomorphic animals so I'll have to pay close attention to those paws and faces but from a cursory look the program has really improved.

I find it is very creative. Working on one concept can really get my mind going in so many different directions. I can try out a concept immediately without setting up my lights and buying/building props which is fun, though the better the program gets the worse it is for those of us who have actual photography, drawing and post-processing skills. Given the improvements in such a short time, I worry that it will affect all our livelihoods, although a customer who doesn't have the imagination to come up with a concept will still need someone to create images for them even if they use AI.

I figure it's a skill I have to learn and so far, it's been really fun. Hopefully they'll start selling.

I held off on uploading Christmas stuff figuring it's too late so I'm focused on stuff for the spring and summer or timeless concepts. Will see how it goes. Glad I have time to practice before having to buy the pricier plan because it takes a lot of trial and error to get it right, though I'm getting much faster and better at prompting. It's awfully fun and very addicting so I'm thinking it'll be costly down the road.

Images that I submitted 6 days ago got accepted yet images that I submitted 25 days ago didn�t get accepted. Anyone knows why that might be?

I feel like Adobe is sending me an encrypted message that I don�t understand 😂