Rejected for White Balance: What It Means and How to Fix It
A White Balance rejection means the colors in your photo have a cast the scene did not have: white shirts look blue, skin looks orange, or everything has a green tint from fluorescent light.
What the agency says
Shutterstock
White Balance
Shutterstock's standard says "Content produced with an incorrect white balance setting is not acceptable." Objects that look white in person should look white in the photo, unless you are creatively changing the mood.
What the reviewer saw
Different light has different color. Shade is blue, household bulbs are orange, older fluorescent tubes are green. Your camera guesses how to neutralize it, and when it guesses wrong, the whole picture takes on that color. A buyer who wants a clean office scene does not want to color correct it first, so the reviewer sends it back.
Mixed light makes it worse: a face lit by a window on one side and a lamp on the other can be blue on one cheek and orange on the other, and no single setting fixes both.
How to fix this file
- Use the white balance picker in your raw editor on something that should be neutral: a white shirt, a grey wall, paper. Then fine-tune by eye.
- Check skin tones after the correction. They are where people notice a cast first.
- For mixed light, use a local adjustment on the area lit by the second source, or choose a different frame.
- Export in sRGB. A file in Adobe RGB or another wide profile can shift once the agency converts it. The requirements checker reads the profile from each file.
How to stop it happening again
- Shoot RAW, so white balance is a setting you can change later without losing quality.
- Put a grey card or color checker in the first frame of each lighting setup, then sync that correction across the set.
- Avoid mixing light colors on your subject: switch off room lamps when shooting by a window, or gel one source to match the other.
Not sure which shots are your strongest?
The free Stock Photo Review looks at 5 to 10 photos and says which ones might suit stock and what to fix first. It is a second opinion from AI, not a reviewer's decision.
Sources and when this was checked
Last checked: November 2026. The agency wording on this page comes from the help pages below. Agencies reword their reasons from time to time, so open the source if your message reads differently.
Frequently asked questions
Is a warm or blue mood allowed?
Yes, when it is deliberate, well done and suits the subject. Shutterstock lists intentional blue, orange and green casts as acceptable creative choices, and suggests naming the tone or mood in the title.
Why does my photo look fine on my screen?
An uncalibrated screen can hide a cast, and eyes adapt to a color within seconds. Check something that should be neutral, like a white wall or grey pavement, with your editor's color picker.
Is auto white balance good enough?
Often, but Shutterstock notes it can be unreliable in mixed lighting, such as daylight from a window plus warm room lamps.
Does the color profile cause a white balance rejection?
It can make colors look off once the agency converts the file. Export in sRGB; the requirements checker shows which profile each file carries.
