Alamy Quality Control (QC)

Q. What are the most common QC failure reasons?
A. We see all kinds of technical problems with images and you can have a read of our blog on common QC failure reasons and how to avoid them.  Make sure you check your images against our useful PDF guide on how to pass QC to see definitions and examples of all our QC Failure Reasons.

Q. How long does it take to find out if I have passed QC?
A. 24 hours on average, but this can be longer over weekends, public holidays, during particularly busy periods, or if you have a low QC Rank.

Q. How will I know if I have passed or failed QC?
A. We’ll send you an email as soon as your images have been checked and we’ll update your submission in Alamy Image Manager (AIM) to let you know either way.

Q. Why do you reject my whole submission if you find a problem with one of my images?
A. We receive over 100,000 images a day so it’s simply not possible for us to check every image. We check a small sample of your images and if all images in that sample are ok then we’ll pass the whole submission. If we find one failure then all images awaiting QC will fail.

We take the view that every image you submit should meet our QC standards so when we look at a random sample we expect it to represent the quality of all images submitted. Our top tip is to check all images at 100% (actual pixels) before you submit.

Q. Why have my images been rejected for no metadata?
A. For your first submission we need all images to have valid EXIF camera data. We need this info so we can check your camera equipment can produce high enough quality images for our customers. If your images don’t have EXIF data but you’ve checked our help pages (How we check your images (Quality Control) and our Guidelines for submitting images to Alamy) and feel that your camera meets our requirements then feel free to drop us an email at qc@alamy.com.

Q. What do you mean my camera is unsuitable for Alamy?
A. Typically, we only accept stock images from DSLRs or equivalent. Almost all compact cameras, fixed lens cameras, SLR-like Bridge Cameras and all mobile phones cannot produce images that meet our guidelines. See our rough guide to digital cameras for more info.

Q. Why do you reject images taken on a mobile/cell phone when you have images from iPhones on sale?
A. Photos taken on a mobile/cell phone can’t be uploaded to Alamy as they don’t produce images of a high enough quality to pass QC. But iPhone images can be uploaded to our iPhone app Stockimo which has slightly different requirements with a separate contract.

Q. Can I upload AI-generated images I’ve made on generative artificial intelligence programs e.g. Midjourney?
A. We’re not currently accepting any imagery created by artificial intelligence. We have an ethical position on our approach to AI imagery which you can read in our blog here. Please do not upload any type of content created by AI as it will not pass QC, and it will be removed immediately from the Alamy platform if found.