How we check your images

We’ll accept any image from you as long as it’s free from faults and meets our guidelines so please make sure you read them before submitting.

Quality Control for stock images

Images are used in a number of different ways – from small low-res web use, to large hi-res for billboards, so it’s important we check your images to make sure they meet the standards our customers need.

Our Quality Control Team (QC) look at your images at 100% to see if there are any technical errors. Check out our guidelines on how to pass QC, they’re really useful if you’re new to Alamy and we recommend you read them before sending us your images so you know what our QC team are looking out for.

For your first submission:

• We need three images to check
• Each one of these images must pass
• All three images should have valid EXIF camera info

If your first submission fails, we’ll send you an email and update your submission in Alamy Image Manager (AIM) to let you know which images have failed and why.

After your first submission has passed: 

• Check your submissions for technical faults before you submit 
• Send us as many images as you like as often as you like 
• We’ll just spot-check a few of your images per submission 
• If the images we check are ok, your whole submission will pass 
• If we find a problem with one image, your whole submission will fail 
• You’ll receive a pass or fail email and we’ll update the submission in AIM 

During UK office hours our QC Team should have your images looked at within 24 hours. Your wait-time can be longer over weekends, or if you have a low QC Rank, and can be much less than 24 hours if you have a high QC Rank. 

Your QC Rank 

The stars on your dashboard indicate your QC Rank which is based on your pass/fail history. The more stars you have, the quicker your submissions will be checked by our QC Team. 

One Star 

• You fail QC frequently suggesting you’re not checking your work against our technical requirements before you upload. Your work takes longer for the QC Team to review and your upload ability could be frozen for 10 days 

Two Stars  

• You’ve passed your first submission and starting to consistently pass QC. Keep checking your work before you upload; your rank will improve, and your submissions will be looked at by the QC Team quicker 

Three Stars 

• Your QC history is good, and your submissions will be spot checked by the QC Team as quickly as possible 

Four Stars 

• You consistently check your work before submitting. The QC Team prioritise reviewing your submissions and we spot check less of your images 

Five Stars 

• Well done! You obviously check your work thoroughly before you upload, and you’ve got a great QC history. We’ll only be spot checking submissions from you meaning you should fly through QC 

QC Ranks can move up or down based on your QC history and at the discretion of our QC Team. 

If you’d like more information on Alamy Quality Control then take a look at some of the blogs from our QC Team and our FAQs.