"9 weeks ago I was happy at Adobe. It is amazing how fast things can change." me too Cobalt, they seemed very fair to contributors.  The free software licenses are great shows they care about contributors.

I've over analyzing all my shoots this weekend trying to spot any tiny error or mistake.  I should step up my game I'll be the first to admit, been very busy and getting sloppy recently (my fault).  Taking a professional photography course at the moment to improve.  But the idea of rejections preventing uploads is a bit nerve wracking.  Shooting stock has always been really good for my state of mind - this is not.  Hope it passes soon.

It's so funny how these people (Cobalt, who I blocked but you talk about it) who were singing Adobe's praises are now facing reality. Understanding takes a long time for some mediocre people who were so happy to jump into AI generation.

"Look how beautiful misery is, and how well it pays, my models did it for free. And I had business with Hennessy champaign in 2016" 

 

If you would be so kind... a little bit of professional courtesy from Adobe...

I think you're dreaming of past and dead times...

My take on this whole Adobe fiasco is this...

- Adobe as well as each and every agency has way more content than any of them need on each and every subject.
- Most buyers could search for whatever topic on each and every site and find what they want within the first few pages.
- Nobody is producing anything that is new and exciting. Pretty much every subject has been done to death.
- Editors are a thing of the past replaced by inspectors reviewing more content than time allows.
- Contributors submit more content than is needed.
- Each and everyone of us could have our portfolio removed from each and every site without even a blink of the eye to the site.
- Rejecting content is a personal event, but has no meaning at all for any site.
- There is no community. Only hired staff who are directed to reply in accordance to company policy. The are not your friend.
- Storage space for the kazillions of repetitive imagery costs money. The less data center storage the better for the corporation.
- Almost every agency is corporate and have their profits and/or shareholder profits as the priority, not yours.
- Long gone are the days of 'agency partnership'. All sites are simply a platform to sell your work, nothing more, nothing less.
- I am not special, you are not special, we are not special.
- Complaining does absolutely nothing. We need their platform more than they need our individual work tenfold.

I am aware this sounds to be a buzzkill but the truth is more often than not a bitter pill to swallow.

I have been shooting stock very successfully for 40+ years now, I have seen the changes in the industry at every level, and I can say with all honesty I still shoot stock on an incidental level. I would not start my car, drive for 5 minutes, pay $1 or parking to shoot an image to come home and edit with the equipment I require and the time it takes to make anywhere from $0.02 to a whopping $0.98 as anyone with half a brain can see this is not a money making sustainable business anymore.

I submit quality images from the best equipment and they all get rejected for similar or quality. My wife shoots from the same location on her phone and they all get accepted. I think the question we all need to ask, is stock even worth shooting anymore?

It pisses me off the whole roulette version of a once amazing business as the logic defies me. Thankfully I still make a decent passive income from many years of work, but I am now so emotionally detached from what I do in part because of the never-ending roulette of senseless rejections in addition to the pitiful royalty rates offered by any site. I simply move on with my day and don't worry about it. All the angst and/or time spent trying to figure out the rejection and/or effort to resubmit is not worth my time or the extra dime I might make simply because an algorithm determines this.

A very good analysis, which I fully agree with.
One could add:
- unfair competition from human AI generators,
- the theft of bestsellers and the abject behavior of the agencies that sell them and collect their cuts,
- productions that required skill, work, time, and money are no longer appreciated at their true value by either individuals or professionals,
- the most exceptional productions can no longer emerge from the crowd.

We are now subject to the insane decisions of machines, and the only way to solve the problem is to no longer send anything in stock to Adobe.

I had a pleasant time reading you.
I completely agree with you. But we know well that AI prompters and promoters can rest easy because no one will ever come and steal their stupidity, incompetence, subservience... 

THE CURRENT "AI" systems are 100% SUBSERVIENCE BASED tools 

Quote from: Andrej.S. on April 19, 2025, 09:37

Well Adobe could be a gold mine if there would be no algorithm / ranking shifts or rejection rates / deleting of images.
You can't plan with Adobe for the next months or years.
You can only try to squeeze the last dollars before the coming big collapse in some years.
2500 USD / month (just 625 USD / week) with 20000 images sounds very managable. One member named half_full is making 1000 USD / week with the same sized portfolio.
But I guess the problem is more that you won't upload that much content so fast as in the last years anymore because Adobe will increase massively the rejection rate.

and here we disagree.
I think the fact that they are cleaning ibrary is better,while you think it's not.
then you think about the great collapse that according to you will happen in a few years,I instead think that there won't be one,in my opinion there will be an evolution,not a collapse.
imo we are only experiencing a first phase,in which things have to settle down.
I agree instead on "no algorithm / ranking shifts" but unfortunately this is not possible,and you know very well why,but clearly this too can be improved and will surely improve in the future.
as for "rejection rates" it seems to me that the review have become more efficient and have already had a taste of the "evolution" I was telling you about.
we are in the midst of a microstock revolution,which until 3 years ago was a completely different job,imo nothing more than this.

AI prompters trying to predict the future of microstock, so pitiful...
Next step for you: bye bye the lazy unskilled sheeps!

.

That's about an obvious a stolen account portfolio as you'll ever see. The variety, the dodgy descriptions in bad English etc.
A very very quick search on one of my areas yielded at least 4 of my images on the first 3 pages.

Adobe makes money selling stolen photos (of course, the original author is never compensated), so isn't the company aren't the companies complicit if there's no anticipatory action taken from their part against this phenomenon?

As part of our ongoing commitment to enhance the content discovery experience for both customers and contributors, we have identified and are removing duplicate files on Adobe Stock. You should have received an email regarding this update on February 27, 2025. All assets have been carefully evaluated to ensure minimal impact on your portfolio.

Sorry, but beware that mistreatment and subtle lies aren't the only certainty your company now inspires.
Your company uses ineffective and faulty artificial management tools, and you must know it. Your company humiliates the professional photographers who made Adobe's fortune.
Oh yeah, your employer is cleaning up the image database because of duplicates? Image database consisting of over 45% declared AI images, now!!! surely about 50% in facts if including fake photos undeclared...
Then follow this link: https://stock.adobe.com/fr/search?order=relevance&serie_id=485406634&order=relevance&serie_id=485406634
Is this contributor (Burst mode master then AI flooder master) one of your company's friends?

Otherwise, developing intelligent tools to defend violated intellectual property on the Adobe platform, tackling the bandits who steal and resell photos on the site, is a waste of your company's time, isn't it? Your employer has nothing to gain from this, and it's okay for them to be a receiver... and they punish historically honest creators. Your company knows that it's highly unlikely that honest contributors will have any legal recourse... But well, sure, it happens in all the microstock companies. But you could emerge from them, since, you are Adobe.

I am lucky that only twelve of my images were removed this far (portfolio of 7400 images). I was, however, annoyed that one of the removed images was one of my all-time bestsellers. I searched for this image on the main Adobe page and found it still online, but not under my name. It was stolen by �Designpics� and here is the image:
https://stock.adobe.com/za/images/greyhounds-at-full-speed-during-a-race/609179796
I looked through this portfolio of 100 pages and found many more of my images. Obviously a portfolio of stolen images. Those of you searching for removed images and find them still online, make sure they are under your name and not stolen.

Trust must be restored by Adobe, it's urgent! But as long as things remain as they are, I advise experienced photographers to stop sending their "best of the best" selection to Adobe, given the pathetic and intolerable rejections that are now the norm. At the very least, send them the crappy snapshoots, and they'll be accepted.

I am a landscape and travel professional photographer, two unique images have been removed from my portfolio. Of these two locations I have ONLY ONE PHOTOGRAPH. How is this possible?
In other cases, the vertical version has been removed. It is not the same photo cropped. It is another image. Customers often like to buy two versions of the same location, the horizontal one is for the blog and the vertical one for social media such as Instagram or TikTok.
Your approach to similar images is completely wrong for me. I am a professional photographer, and you are not helping professionals.

Well done, good strategy! redeem for bonus codes will be plummeting next year... good savings for Adobe, more profit...
Hope Adobe will not convert sales into Vietnamese Dong (1 VND = 0,04 USD), could be a nice idea for the future of the Adobe company.
Converting euro sales (money received by Adobe from Euro zone) into dollar (for Euro zone contributors) was an intelligent decision for financial of Adobe, right?

Maybe we should advice customer orientation towards respectful microstock companies, there is/are.

Adobe has complete faith in the ineptitude of machines, into which they have programmed faulty algorithms. What contempt, what disrespect... And our submission doesn't bother them.

Submission to faulty algorithms, that's what Adobe promises us. Times have truly changed. Absolute contempt for human reality.