diff --git a/docs/topics/media-pipeline.rst b/docs/topics/media-pipeline.rst
index f18789ab0..f13a72a0b 100644
--- a/docs/topics/media-pipeline.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/media-pipeline.rst
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ Supported Storage
 =================
 
 File system is currently the only officially supported storage, but there is
-also (undocumented) support for storing files in `Amazon S3`_.
+also support for storing files in `Amazon S3`_.
 
 .. _Amazon S3: https://aws.amazon.com/s3/
 
@@ -146,6 +146,30 @@ Where:
 * ``full`` is a sub-directory to separate full images from thumbnails (if
   used). For more info see :ref:`topics-images-thumbnails`.
 
+Amazon S3 storage
+-----------------
+
+.. setting:: FILES_STORE_S3_ACL
+.. setting:: IMAGES_STORE_S3_ACL
+
+:setting:`FILES_STORE` and :setting:`IMAGES_STORE` can represent an Amazon S3
+bucket. Scrapy will automatically upload the files to the bucket.
+
+For example, this is a valid :setting:`IMAGES_STORE` value::
+
+    IMAGES_STORE = 's3://bucket/images'
+
+You can modify the Access Control List (ACL) policy used for the stored files,
+which is defined by the :setting:`FILES_STORE_S3_ACL` and
+:setting:`IMAGES_STORE_S3_ACL` settings. By default, the ACL is set to
+``private``. To make the files publicly available use the ``public-read``
+policy::
+
+    IMAGES_STORE_S3_ACL = 'public-read'
+
+For more information, see `canned ACLs`_ in the Amazon S3 Developer Guide.
+
+.. _canned ACLs: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/acl-overview.html#canned-acl
 
 Usage example
 =============
diff --git a/docs/topics/settings.rst b/docs/topics/settings.rst
index 7f49aacdb..7c0d8e57b 100644
--- a/docs/topics/settings.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/settings.rst
@@ -689,15 +689,6 @@ temporary files before uploading with :ref:`FTP feed storage <topics-feed-storag
 :ref:`Amazon S3 <topics-feed-storage-s3>`.
 
 
-.. setting:: FILES_STORE_S3_ACL
-
-FILES_STORE_S3_ACL
-------------------
-
-Default: ``'private'``
-
-S3-specific access control policy (ACL) for S3 files store.
-
 .. setting:: ITEM_PIPELINES
 
 ITEM_PIPELINES
diff --git a/scrapy/pipelines/images.py b/scrapy/pipelines/images.py
index a511887b6..964541d6a 100644
--- a/scrapy/pipelines/images.py
+++ b/scrapy/pipelines/images.py
@@ -88,6 +88,8 @@ class ImagesPipeline(FilesPipeline):
         s3store = cls.STORE_SCHEMES['s3']
         s3store.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = settings['AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID']
         s3store.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = settings['AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY']
+        s3store.POLICY = settings['IMAGES_STORE_S3_ACL']
+
         store_uri = settings['IMAGES_STORE']
         return cls(store_uri, settings=settings)
 
diff --git a/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py b/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py
index b9d01e155..26165da1a 100644
--- a/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py
+++ b/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py
@@ -176,6 +176,8 @@ HTTPCACHE_GZIP = False
 
 HTTPPROXY_AUTH_ENCODING = 'latin-1'
 
+IMAGES_STORE_S3_ACL = 'private'
+
 ITEM_PROCESSOR = 'scrapy.pipelines.ItemPipelineManager'
 
 ITEM_PIPELINES = {}