Photo do's and don'ts

You’ve shot some great images and now it’s time to make your selections and edit your photos to submit to Adobe Stock. There are no hard-fast rules, but these do’s and don’ts provide some good guidelines at each stage.

Do: Be selective—pick shots that provide their own unique value to potential customers. 

Do: Choose photos that offer space for copy.

Don’t: Select too many similar images.

Do: Ensure that your images are sharp by viewing them at 100%. 

General editing tips

Do: Process your images subtly: clean color images that are in focus sell well. 

Do: Use sRGB color profile.

Tip: Check out our Photoshop tutorials, Lightroom CC tutorials, and Lightroom Classic tutorials on everything from adjusting an image’s tone and color to sharpening.

Image adjustments

Do: Straighten horizon lines where appropriate.

Do: Adjust levels, curves, or brightness/contrast to ensure the best tonal range.

Don’t: Aggressively lighten shadows as this can introduce noise.

Don’t: Convert your image to black & white or duotone. Buyers want the maximum flexibility provided by the full color image. 

Do: Reduce noise if necessary—but don't overdo it, as you could create a soft image.

Do: Get to know sharpen tools and use them carefully—too much sharpening can bring out noise and unwanted texture. 

Image repair

Do: Completely remove any logos and trademarks.

Do: Clean up dust spots.

Effects

Don’t: Add sunrays or flares.

Don’t: Create mirrored images, kaleidoscopes, or patterns.

Don’t: Use effect filters.

Don’t: Add vignettes or frames.

Variations

Don’t: Send the same file cropped in different ways.

Don’t: Send the same file flipped or rotated.

Don’t: Submit color and black and white variations of same files.

Before you submit

Do: Zoom in 100% and check your file before submitting.

Don’t: Compress files too much—this creates irreparable pixelation.

Don’t: Enlarge files

Don’t: Add text or watermarks to your image.