Photos Item Preparation & Technical Requirements

Summary: This article outlines the general guidelines for preparing a photo item for uploading.
Please note: There are three parts to preparing your item to sell on Envato. This process includes the item preparation and technical requirements for certain items (as shown below). Make sure to also review our overall Quality Requirements, Technical Requirements and Legal Requirements to cover all the bases and get through review!

Item Preparation Requirements
Title & Metadata Requirements
Technical Requirements
Final Steps

Item Preparation Requirements

• Please save and submit your photos as JPEGs at their highest available resolution/quality. Watermarked preview images will be generated automatically.
• PhotoDune offers both web-based and FTP upload. Whenever you have more than a handful of images to submit, we highly recommend using our FTP upload service.
  • For more detailed instructions on bulk submissions using our FTP upload system, refer to this article.
  • We do not accept content on hard drives.
• Make sure you have the full rights to sell your photographs as commercial resale work.
• Submit graphics, vectors, and illustrations to GraphicRiver, as opposed to PhotoDune.

Illustrations & Vectors

• Do not submit any illustrations or vectors, even as fully rasterized images.
• Do not submit any direct scans or full digital representations of illustrations, drawings or other artwork.
• Photographs containing a physical illustration, drawing or general artwork as part of the photo are acceptable as long as appropriate property releases are supplied.    

Text

• Do not submit images with overlaid text (text that wasn’t present in the source image as part of the original subject, added during post-production).
• Photos, where text or letters are part of the photographed subject (and not artificially added) are acceptable.

Mature Content

• Photos may not contain sexual content or full nudity.
• Photos may not promote violence, sexism, racism, bigotry, etc.
• Photos may not contain profanity or explicit language.
• You must only submit photos that are suitable for a broader audience.

Similar/Duplicate Shots

• When submitting similar photos or photos from the same photoshoot, only upload unique and your highest-quality shots.
• Do not submit overly similar shots, repeats, or duplicate photos even with slight differences or modifications:
  • Do not submit multiple photos that have been rotated or flipped.
  • Do not submit multiple photos that have been cropped differently. A similar subject that has been framed and shot differently (e.g. a close-up and wide shot, or a landscape and portrait) may be acceptable.
  • Do not submit multiple photos that have simply been taken moments apart.
  • Do not submit multiple photos with an alternate coloring or filter applied. A separate color and black & white version only may be acceptable.
  • Do not submit multiple photos that have been composited differently, e.g. where an element has been removed, added, or swapped out.
• As a rule of thumb when submitting multiple photos with a similar subject matter, if none of the following elements are significantly different, the photos are likely to be considered duplicates and should not be submitted:
  
  • Emotion/Mood
  • Facial Expression
  • Pose
  • Perspective/Angle
  • Props/Setting
  • Clothing/Styling
  • Lighting/Time of Day
• Submitting overly similar images will be flagged as spamming and may impact your account status.

Intellectual Property

Please don’t submit photographs containing trademarks, brands, logos, copyrighted products/artwork, or anything else you don’t entirely own or have the rights to sell.

That means no editorial content (photos for non-commercial, non-promotional use only, without appropriate model/property releases). If you submit photographs that depict recognizable human beings (even if the face is not visible) or identifiable buildings, you must include a signed release form.

For more details on these IP and release form requirements, please see: Your Legal Responsibilities as an Envato Author and the Model and Property Release Policy.

!HINT BOX !
If you’re more of a visual learner, we’ve also put together a guide to the most common rejection reasons we come across, including heaps of good & bad examples, as well as a lookbook with examples of the type of photos and quality we’re looking for to further assist and inspire you.

Title & Metadata Requirements

Title Requirements

• Titles must be no longer than 100 characters
• Titles must use English language characters only
• Titles must not contain brand names or trademarks

The title field should always be relevant, concise, and professional looking. The following guidelines are examples of good and bad naming practices:

Good:

• “This is the File Title” – Capitalize the first letter in each word. Small words like “of” and “an” may be lowercase.
• “Template with CMS” – Capitalize acronyms and abbreviations like XML and PSD.
• “WordPress Template” – Follow the industry standard even if it doesn’t follow the normal capitalization rules. For example, use jQuery and WordPress instead of Jquery and Wordpress.

Bad:

• “THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE” – Do not use all CAPS.
• “this is also not acceptable” – Do not use all lowercase.
• “Beautiful File” or “The Best Template” – Do not use subjective words like brilliant, amazing, or best. These words describe your opinion rather than what the file actually is.
• “User9909 – File Name” – Do not append your username or any other less-relevant information to the file name.
• “Apple-like Design” – Do not describe what your item is similar to in its title, describe what it actually is.
• Avoid using brand names in Title and description.

Tag Requirements & Validation

• Tags cannot simply be a whole number. However, tags beginning with numbers are acceptable (e.g. “3d”).
• Tags may be more than one word, and single spaces and hyphens are acceptable (e.g. “virtual reality”, “close-up”).
• Tags cannot contain '!', '#', '$', '%', '(', ')', '*', '<', '=', '>', '?', '@', '{', '}', '[', ']', '^', '~', or any non-standard whitespace characters.
• Tags cannot start with a '.' character.
• Tags cannot end with '&', '_', '+' or '-'.
• There is a maximum limit of 50 tags for photos (any tags beyond the first 50 may be truncated).
• Individual tags must be no longer than 100 characters.
• Each tag must be separated by a comma and (optional) leading space (e.g. "blue, hat").
• The entire set of tags must be no longer than 2048 total characters.
• Tags should be all lowercase.
• Tags should be spelled correctly (using American Standard English) and should relate to your photo and its possible uses.

IPTC/XMP Metadata Validation & Mapping

Our upload system will attempt to automatically extract the required item information from your available embedded image IPTC/XMP metadata, as follows:

Please note: all of the fields listed above are in order of highest to lowest capture priority.

E.g. if the XMP “Title” field is available, it will use that and ignore all following fields and data. However, if the XMP “Title” field is empty/unavailable, it will next look for the IPTC “ObjectName” data.

• Item Title:
  • XMP “Title”
  • IPTC “ObjectName”
  • IPTC “Title”
  • IPTC “Headline”
• Item Description:
  • IPTC “Caption”
  • XMP “Description”
• Item Tags:
  • IPTC “Keywords”
  • XMP “Subject”

Technical Requirements

Specifications

• Photos must be RGB formatted
• JPG files only.  Our upload system will ignore all other file types.
• Photos must not contain any custom watermarks, date stamps, or signatures overtop of the image.
• Please be sure to check your images at 100% full-resolution before submitting to inspect for any issues and ensure it meets our technical quality requirements.

Technical Quality

Resolution

• Photos must be between 4 megapixels (4.0 MP) and 80 megapixels (80.0 MP) in size.
• Do not upsize/upsample your photos or individual elements within your photos.
• Downsizing may be acceptable under certain circumstances to help minimize issues around focus, noise, etc. However keep in mind our minimum resolution requirements, and that we prefer high quality, high-resolution photos that have been well-executed from start to finish.

Noise & Artifacts

• Photos must be free of excessive noise/grain/pixel-discoloration
  • As a general rule to avoid excessive noise, the camera should be set towards the lowest ISO setting, minimize long exposures, and ensure proper lighting and exposure settings during capture.
  • Noise reduction processing is acceptable (e.g. via Lightroom), however, be sure not to overcompensate where too much detail is lost and edges/colors start to bleed together.
• Photos must not contain any visible compression artifacts (e.g. banding in gradients)
• Photos must not contain excessive chromatic aberration (aka “purple fringing”)
  • Chromatic aberration is characterized as distinctly off-colored edges, often purple/green, and is usually the result of a combination of high contrast lighting with a wide aperture like f2.8 or greater.
• Photos must be free of any sensor spots/dust
  • Sensor spots are unwanted gray/dark spots caused by dust or smudges on the camera sensor/lens, often most visible in brighter areas of an image.
  • Be sure to clean your sensor and lens before shooting, or carefully remove any sensor spots in post-production.

Composition & Focus

• Photos must have proper framing/composition
  • Photos should be cropped to remove any distractions or unwanted elements, and in a way that naturally enhances the focal point of the image.
  • Do not over-crop your photos. When in doubt, aim on the wider side to leave enough room and/or copy space to provide customers with sufficient flexibility for their needs.
  • Make sure that the horizon has been appropriately straightened.
• Photos must have proper focus and be free of unintended blurriness or lack of detail (e.g. as caused by camera/hand shake, too slow shutter speed, or the focus locked on the wrong part of the image)
  • Depth of field should be thought out and fit with the style and intent of the shot.
  • Do not use any faux depth of field or fake blurring techniques, such as compositing a sharp subject over a blurry background.
  • Techniques such as natural motion blur are okay, e.g. to convey movement/energy.

Lighting & Exposure

• Photos must have proper lighting/exposure. Do not submit photos with overly harsh or overly soft lighting.
• Photos must not contain any harsh, unnatural, unflattering or distracting shadows or reflections.
• Photos must not be underexposed, where the brightest highlights are gray and the overall image is too dark.
• Photos must not be overexposed, where most of the highlights are completely blown out (fully white), and significant detail is lost, or where people’s skin may result in a yellowish cast.
• Natural lighting is preferred where possible, but artificial lighting is acceptable if properly used (e.g. studio shots).

Distortion

• Photos must be free of unwanted perspective/lens distortion, e.g. pincushion or barrel distortion, etc., that result in an unnatural or unflattering image.
• Lens/perspective techniques such as fisheye and tilt-shift are okay, e.g. to convey a particular emotion or unique point of view. Use of perspective/lens distortion in this way must be thought out and fit with the style and intent of the shot.

Retouching & Processing

• Use of subtle retouching and processing is acceptable to enhance the clarity, quality, and style of the photo. This includes things like:
  • Color correction.
  • Exposure, contrast, and white balance adjustment.
  • Subtle sharpening / noise-removal.
  • Minimal healing/retouching.
  • HDR processing that enhances the detail in the highlights and shadows.
• Do not submit photos that have been over-processed/over-corrected, where the result of the processing or retouching is visibly perceptible or distracting. This includes things like:
  • Blurriness/softness due to excessive noise reduction.
  • Added noise due to over-sharpening.
  • Highlight blow-outs due to increased exposure.
  • Artifacts of elements that were removed/healed.
  • Plastic-looking skin from over-retouching.
  • HDR images with unnatural shadows/highlights or halos around the edges/details.
• Do not submit over-stylized or heavily processed images.
  • In general, try to keep the photo as natural, authentic, and broadly useful as possible.
  • Do not submit photos with amateurish or low-quality photo effects applied (e.g. rippling, glowing edges, mosaic, harsh vignetting, etc.).

Subject Matter and Authenticity

• Photos should strive for a high level of commercial value and authenticity with their subject matter.
• Do not submit photos where the composition or surrounding elements distract from the primary subject, overall mood, or concept.
• Do not submit photos where the subject or environment is overly posed or staged in an unconvincing, cliche, or contrived manner.
• Do not submit photos where people and facial expressions feel noticeably forced or unnatural, and do not fit with the overall scene, mood, or concept.
• Photos with more common subject matter (e.g. flowers, sunsets, cats & dogs) may be subject to higher/stricter standards and must demonstrate unique value to be acceptable.
• Please see our Commercial Demand Guide for further detail and examples.

Additional Technical Requirements

For most photos, the above technical requirements are all that you need. However, there are some unique types of photos where additional requirements apply.

• Background & Textures
• Isolated Objects
• Photomanipulations & Composites
• 3D Renders

Final Steps

• Check that your preview images, thumbnail, title, description and tags follow our formatting standards.
• Upload Your File: refer to Uploading instructions or go straight to the upload page if you already know how to upload.