John Mitchell Posted April 28, 2017 Share Posted April 28, 2017 I sometimes upload both colour and black and white versions of the same image, and inevitably the black and white one shows up ahead (sometimes way ahead) of the colour one in search results. Anyone else notice this? It almost seems that the search engine is giving priority to black and white because it is less common than colour. I use the same keywords in both images, adding only "black and white" and "monochrome" to the black and white one. Strange... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colblimp Posted April 28, 2017 Share Posted April 28, 2017 That is strange. When I first started with Alamy I was told to always upload in Colour - if the buyer wants B&W they'd change it themselves. Additionally, my few B&W pictures on here are low in the search results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted April 28, 2017 Author Share Posted April 28, 2017 I get the impression that when there are a lot of search results, the search engine is now looking for images that have something different (e.g. "black and white") in the keywords that might distinguish them from the others -- i.e. the engine is trying to add variety to the results, especially with general and common searches. This might partially explain why we sometimes see some unexpected and even strange images showing up high in search pages. It also seems that these types of images get shuffled around quite a bit. Regarding B&W, I only upload a B&W version if I think an image looks especially good or might sell in B&W. No sales of B&W here, but I have had zooms. Hope springs eternal... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted April 29, 2017 Share Posted April 29, 2017 I see B&W images often used by interior decorators in pubs, restaurants etc, so there is a market for this medium. I would have thought that a buyer might be tempted by a good monochrome image as it shows what can be done with light and shade, and this might not be obvious from the colour image. I've sold a few B&W shots but they started life in that way and were of buildings etc that are no longer to be seen. I have one or maybe two B&W versions of colour shots available, but they have never been zoomed. I've also thought of trying to see things in B&W - something I was once reasonably good at - and taking some local city shots with that in mind, but I've not done so. It's worth a punt I guess. Research in pubs, coffee shops etc to see what kind of things are used would not be too onerous. The obvious thing to do is to see if there have been any relevant searches in the past year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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