diff --git a/pageserver/src/config.rs b/pageserver/src/config.rs
index 309e5367a4..7442814c43 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/config.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/config.rs
@@ -698,6 +698,12 @@ impl PageServerConf {
                 Some(parse_toml_u64("compaction_threshold", compaction_threshold)?.try_into()?);
         }
 
+        if let Some(image_creation_threshold) = item.get("image_creation_threshold") {
+            t_conf.image_creation_threshold = Some(
+                parse_toml_u64("image_creation_threshold", image_creation_threshold)?.try_into()?,
+            );
+        }
+
         if let Some(gc_horizon) = item.get("gc_horizon") {
             t_conf.gc_horizon = Some(parse_toml_u64("gc_horizon", gc_horizon)?);
         }
diff --git a/test_runner/regress/test_remote_storage.py b/test_runner/regress/test_remote_storage.py
index 90d69c7b0e..24db80c7cc 100644
--- a/test_runner/regress/test_remote_storage.py
+++ b/test_runner/regress/test_remote_storage.py
@@ -233,8 +233,8 @@ def test_remote_storage_upload_queue_retries(
             # disable background compaction and GC. We invoke it manually when we want it to happen.
             "gc_period": "0s",
             "compaction_period": "0s",
-            # don't create image layers, that causes just noise
-            "image_creation_threshold": "10000",
+            # create image layers eagerly, so that GC can remove some layers
+            "image_creation_threshold": "1",
         }
     )
 
@@ -301,7 +301,7 @@ def test_remote_storage_upload_queue_retries(
 
     # Create more churn to generate all upload ops.
     # The checkpoint / compact / gc ops will block because they call remote_client.wait_completion().
-    # So, run this in a differen thread.
+    # So, run this in a different thread.
     churn_thread_result = [False]
 
     def churn_while_failpoints_active(result):
@@ -395,8 +395,8 @@ def test_remote_timeline_client_calls_started_metric(
             # disable background compaction and GC. We invoke it manually when we want it to happen.
             "gc_period": "0s",
             "compaction_period": "0s",
-            # don't create image layers, that causes just noise
-            "image_creation_threshold": "10000",
+            # create image layers eagerly, so that GC can remove some layers
+            "image_creation_threshold": "1",
         }
     )
 
diff --git a/test_runner/regress/test_tenant_conf.py b/test_runner/regress/test_tenant_conf.py
index e087891bba..c5f9a3d157 100644
--- a/test_runner/regress/test_tenant_conf.py
+++ b/test_runner/regress/test_tenant_conf.py
@@ -129,6 +129,7 @@ tenant_config={checkpoint_distance = 10000, compaction_target_size = 1048576}"""
         "checkpoint_distance": "15000",
         "gc_period": "80sec",
         "compaction_period": "80sec",
+        "image_creation_threshold": "2",
     }
     env.neon_cli.config_tenant(
         tenant_id=tenant,
@@ -149,7 +150,7 @@ tenant_config={checkpoint_distance = 10000, compaction_target_size = 1048576}"""
                     "compaction_threshold": 10,
                     "gc_horizon": 67108864,
                     "gc_period": 80,
-                    "image_creation_threshold": 3,
+                    "image_creation_threshold": 2,
                     "pitr_interval": 604800,
                 }.items()
             ), f"Unexpected res: {res}"
@@ -174,7 +175,7 @@ tenant_config={checkpoint_distance = 10000, compaction_target_size = 1048576}"""
     assert updated_effective_config["compaction_target_size"] == 1048576
     assert updated_effective_config["compaction_threshold"] == 10
     assert updated_effective_config["gc_horizon"] == 67108864
-    assert updated_effective_config["image_creation_threshold"] == 3
+    assert updated_effective_config["image_creation_threshold"] == 2
     assert updated_effective_config["pitr_interval"] == "7days"
 
     # restart the pageserver and ensure that the config is still correct
@@ -195,7 +196,7 @@ tenant_config={checkpoint_distance = 10000, compaction_target_size = 1048576}"""
                     "compaction_threshold": 10,
                     "gc_horizon": 67108864,
                     "gc_period": 80,
-                    "image_creation_threshold": 3,
+                    "image_creation_threshold": 2,
                     "pitr_interval": 604800,
                 }.items()
             ), f"Unexpected res: {res}"