diff --git a/libobs/CMakeLists.txt b/libobs/CMakeLists.txt
index 45ee587f8..b207107d1 100644
--- a/libobs/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/libobs/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ find_package(ImageMagick QUIET COMPONENTS MagickCore)
 
 if(NOT ImageMagick_MagickCore_FOUND AND NOT FFMPEG_AVCODEC_FOUND)
 	message(FATAL_ERROR "Either MagickCore or Libavcodec is required, but both were not found")
+elseif(NOT ImageMagick_MagickCore_FOUND AND LIBOBS_PREFER_IMAGEMAGICK)
+	message(FATAL_ERROR "ImageMagick support was requested, but was not found.")
 endif()
 
 option(LIBOBS_PREFER_IMAGEMAGICK "Prefer ImageMagick over ffmpeg for image loading" OFF)