Why stock footage gets rejected

Stock footage rejected: the reasons at a glance

Each agency words its rejections differently. This table maps the causes to the labels you will see in a Shutterstock rejection and the wording Adobe uses on its refusal pages.

Technical quality

Shutterstock returns most quality problems with one message and documents each cause in a separate article. Adobe lists its video problems on a single refusal page.

Noise, compression and upscaling

Shutterstock rejects excessive noise, film grain, compression artifacts, macroblocks, banding, and pixelation from upscaling, with the example of a 1920x1080 clip up-converted to 3840x2160. It advises the lowest ISO you can use, as little compression as possible, and says: “Do not modify your clip’s resolution or up-res your content.” Adobe is as direct: “Upscaled videos (e.g., from HD to 4K) will be rejected.” Check every clip at 100% magnification, especially low-light shots.

The same Shutterstock article still mentions a 4 GB limit. Its technical requirements page, updated later, on 17 December 2025, allows 10 GB, and that is the figure to follow.

Focus and exposure

Shutterstock’s focus article lists soft or missed focus, motion blur and, for video only, a plane of focus that keeps shifting because of autofocus; it recommends single-area autofocus over continuous. Its exposure article covers blown highlights, crushed shadows, flat light and exposure that jumps during the clip, and its white balance article rejects unnatural color casts. Adobe names “Poor lighting or color grading.” Trim the start of a clip where the camera is still adjusting focus or zoom, as Adobe’s do’s and don’ts advise.

Camera movement

For Shutterstock, “Camera movement should be intentional and motivated by action within the frame.” Unstable footage, abrupt moves and jarring zooms are rejected; shake passes when it is a stylistic choice that fits the content. Adobe refuses “Unstable video or jittery camera holds.” On stabilization in post, Adobe suggests editing tools or in-camera stabilization. Shutterstock accepts stabilization software if you check that it adds no distortion, but asks for clips with subtle, organic movement to go in without it. A tripod or gimbal on set satisfies both.

Frame rate, shutter and interlacing

Shutterstock rejects frame rates outside its list, ghosting or duplicate and skipped frames from a frame rate conversion, frame blending, and jerky motion from the wrong shutter speed. It accepts interlaced footage as long as the combing is not distracting, and notes that deinterlacing can cause frame blending. Adobe refuses “Low frame rates.” Shoot and export at the same rate, in progressive whenever possible.

Aliasing and moiré

Shutterstock rejects visible aliasing or moiré, such as the wavy pattern on a laptop screen. Fine stripes, patterns and repetitive details cause it. Changing the angle, moving closer or adjusting the speed of a pan or tilt can reduce it.

Color and LOG footage

Adobe: “Logarithmic gamma (log) videos should have simple color grading applied,” and a basic Rec. 709 LUT is the recommended start. Heavy grades and cinematic LUTs are fine only when they reflect the scene as filmed. Shutterstock prefers Rec. 709 and rejects oversaturation and extreme adjustments under post-production. Pond5 accepts moderate correction and reminds you that many buyers grade footage themselves.

Stills, edits and effects

Shutterstock rejects videos made only of still photos with basic pans and zooms (the “Ken Burns” effect) and slideshows; cinemagraphs, advanced composites and parallax effects pass. Adobe refuses visible transitions, logos and text, and its do’s and don’ts rule out videos built from photos, except timelapse and stop motion. Pond5 prefers clips without edits: split a sequence into separate shots.

In depth: each quality rejection in detail, with how to check it before upload.

Resolution, framing, length and file

• Black bars: Shutterstock rejects letterboxing, pillarboxing and matting, with pillarbox accepted only on archival footage. Crop to a listed resolution instead.
• Resolution: Shutterstock and Adobe Stock publish lists of accepted sizes, and Adobe also takes most widescreen ratios. Adobe refuses content that fails its minimum requirements during moderation.
• Length: 5 to 60 seconds at all three agencies. Shutterstock accepts a shorter clip only if it loops or shows a complete transition.
• Orientation: Shutterstock rejects content “oriented incorrectly or flipped”, and warns that your computer’s preview can rotate a file on screen while the file itself keeps the wrong orientation.
• 360, VR and 3D: Shutterstock does not accept them. Pond5 takes 360 VR clips of 45 to 119 seconds.
• Damaged file: Shutterstock’s File Integrity rejection covers files that will not open or broke in transfer. It suggests opening the file in another program, exporting again, and keeping ampersands, dashes, colons and asterisks out of the file name; its upload troubleshooting article allows only letters, digits and underscores. Pond5 also refuses spaces, dashes, accents and special characters in file names.

The free video spec checker reads a clip’s resolution, frame rate, codec, length and size, and shows which agency would reject it.

In depth: why upscaled video gets rejected and how to export at native resolution.

Audio

Shutterstock rejects a clip for audio when the sound was added in post-production, contains copyrighted music or sound effects, or includes dialogue. A commercial clip in which someone can be heard speaking needs that person’s model release. Adobe’s pages disagree: the editing page (11 June 2026) says “Adobe does not accept videos with audio,” while the do’s and don’ts page (27 March 2026) asks for a model release for each identifiable voice, or no audio. Pond5 prefers audio removed, keeps sound when it is useful to buyers and holds no copyrighted music and no recognizable voice without a model release, and says in-camera mic sound will most likely not be accepted. A silent export clears the audio rule at all three agencies.

In depth: the audio rules of each agency and when to keep sound.

Logos, brands and other people’s work

Commercial footage may end up in advertising or product branding, so agencies refuse anything in the frame that belongs to someone else. Editorial clips follow looser rules.

Blurring a logo in post carries its own risk: Shutterstock’s post-production article rejects poorly blurred or cloned trademarks, faces and business names. Its advice is to keep logos out at the shoot, checking wardrobe, buildings, vehicles, billboards and the clothes of passers-by. A clip with a visible trademark can still go to Shutterstock as editorial if it meets the editorial standards. Getty also asks contributors to remove visible trademarks and logos.

In depth: logos, products, cars and buildings in footage, and the editorial exception.

Releases

Shutterstock requires a model release for any recognizable person in a commercial clip, signed by a parent or guardian for a minor, and a property release for private property. Releases go up as JPEG files, one per person, with a handwritten signature and dates in the Gregorian calendar. Release forms in a language other than English are accepted only from Shutterstock, Getty Images, iStock, Adobe or Easy Release.

Adobe counts a person as identifiable “by their face, voice, tattoos, clothing, or even specific surroundings.” A release with incorrect or inconsistent information, an illegible or incomplete signature, or reused across different models gets the status “Remind to complete”, which you can fix in the contributor portal. Editorial clips need no release at Shutterstock, but they cannot be licensed for commercial use.

In depth: when a clip needs a model or property release.

Metadata mistakes

Shutterstock also rejects spelling and grammar errors in text shown in a clip, and factual errors under Inaccurate Information, such as a mislabeled diagram or a wrong statistic. To test a title and keyword list against each agency’s limits, use the title and keyword checker.

Similar clips

Shutterstock rejects a clip that is too close to one you already submitted or that is already published. For video, that covers flipped versions, cropped or re-framed versions, several color or filter variations, and the same subject shot at different clip lengths or with different camera moves. It allows one horizontal and one vertical version of the same unmoved subject, and one color, one black-and-white and one filtered version.

Adobe refuses repetitive angles or poses, slight color or zoom changes and bulk uploads with little differentiation. Getty flags files too similar to others in a series as duplicates, and Pond5 curators can reject a clip when the library already holds too many similar files. Send the strongest take of each shot.

In depth: what counts as similar content and how many takes to send.

AI content and labels

Shutterstock rejects content that “appears to have been created with AI-generative technology” as Non-Licensable Content. Adobe accepts AI-generated video, but refuses it without the generative AI label, and also refuses camera footage that carries the label by mistake. Pond5 and Getty Images do not accept AI-generated content. The quoted policies are on the AI video policies page.

Checks before you upload

1. The resolution and frame rate are on the agency’s list, with no black bars.
2. The clip runs 5 to 60 seconds, with the camera’s focus and zoom adjustments trimmed.
3. It is at its native resolution, never upscaled, and LOG footage is graded to Rec. 709.
4. There is no audio track, at least for Adobe Stock.
5. At 100%, there is no visible noise, banding, moiré, focus shift or ghosting.
6. No logo, brand name, artwork, screen content or personal watermark is in frame.
7. Every recognizable person and private property has a release.
8. The metadata is in the right language, each keyword appears once, with no brand names, and editorial clips are marked.
9. Only one strong take of each shot goes up.
10. AI clips are labeled and sent only to an agency that accepts them.

Each agency’s full rules are on its own page: Shutterstock, Adobe Stock and Pond5.