For professional photographers, uploading photos to free stock photo sites like Unsplash and Pexels might is a waste of time. But, it is not the case if you are new to photography and dreaming to become a professional photographer someday. Despite free, sites like Unsplash and Pexels don’t brutally accept all photos submitted by photographers to enrich their image database. Only qualified photos will be accepted.
Speaking of image reviewing process, Pixabay is more recommended if your purpose of uploading your photos to a free stock photo site is to gauge the quality of your shots. This site applies tighter reviewing process than Unsplash and Pexels. Unfortunately, the policy of Pixabay doesn’t allow you to delete your photos once they are accepted. Even if you have deactivated your account.
If you already have lots of photos on Unsplash or Pexels and want to delete some of them for a certain reason, this post will show you how to do so.
One thing. Unsplash and Pexels adopt a CC0-similar license that allows users to use your images for free without requiring them to credit you or other authors whose images are used. This license is irrevocable. Users who have downloaded your images keep being able to use your images although you have deleted your images.
How to delete your photos from Unplash
Unsplash allows you to delete the photos you have uploaded, but you can only do so individually one by one. To delete a photo from Unsplash, login to Unsplash with your account and click your profile icon on the top-right corner to open your profile page.
Select a photo you want to delete by clicking it. You will see an Edit button when you open your own photo while logged in. Click this button.
A pop-up will appear. Click the Settings tab on this pop-up and click the I’d like to delete this photo link to delete the photo.
How to delete your photos from Pexels
Same as Unsplash, Pexels also allows you to delete the photos you have uploaded. To do so, login to Pexels with your account and go to your profile by clicking your profile icon.
Select a photo you want to delete and scroll down to the Edit section on the appearing pop-up (bottom-most). You will see a Delete this photo button here. Click this button to delete the photo.
Final words
Uploading your photos to free stock photo sites like Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay is a great way if you are new to photography and plan to be a professional stock photographer. You can gauge if your shots worthy enough to sell as these sites apply a reviewing process before your photos are accepted. One crucial thing to know before you upload your photos, you need to understand that your photos will be released under a license similar to CC0, in which you won’t be able to revoke the license in case you change your mind in the future.