Black and white photography

[lisah2006]

I didn't realize alamy accepted black and white photography. I don't see a place on the categories to choose some of the categories they show on their category page for customers. Does that mean their team curates them? 

[Colin Woods]

No. They do accept B&W but they rarely sell. The categories thing isn't used at the moment, I think they are planning to use it later on. If you do put B&W on, make sure to include 'black & white', 'monochrome' etc in the keywords. 

[John Mitchell]

Ive had a few zooms of B&W images but never a sale. If you're signed up -- you probably are automatically -- for "Image Options" (see "Additional Revenue" on your dashboard), then it sounds as if you are allowing Alamy to supply B&W versions. Not sure if they are currently doing that yet, though. Here's what they say:

 

"We’ll offer customers variations of the images you provide to give them a greater choice, for example creating an additional black and white version of a coloured image could be an image option in the future."

 

P.S. IME, black and white images do better on POD sites. I've had a few very good print sales through one.

[Bryan]

Probably not worth uploading recently taken shots as B&W, but archive B&W shots do sell here.  Personally I am a fan of B&W. 

 

Actually there is also a market for good (and not so good ) recent B&W photography as decorators' pieces, take a look inside some local businesses  -   but maybe not via Alamy.  Most interior designers probably have the skills to take a colour image and convert for their own use.

 

I would be interested to hear if anyone is selling recent monochrome work here.

[Robert M Estall]

There are some photographers here who prefer B&W and upload in that form almost entirely. There are also some who frequently offer B&W versions alongside full coloured ones. No idea how that works out for them as clients can do it themselves if they have much grasp of software. 

 

I'm averse to the practice from years of submitting photographs to publications when most insisted that B&W should be cheaper, usually half price. Occasionally they would convert my colour transparencies to monochrome which turned out truly awful.To-day, software does it pretty well, some a little better than others.

[losdemas]

3 hours ago, Bryan said:

Probably not worth uploading recently taken shots as B&W, but archive B&W shots do sell here.  Personally I am a fan of B&W. 

 

Actually there is also a market for good (and not so good ) recent B&W photography as decorators' pieces, take a look inside some local businesses  -   but maybe not via Alamy.  Most interior designers probably have the skills to take a colour image and convert for their own use.

 

I would be interested to hear if anyone is selling recent monochrome work here.

Brasilnut sold one of the Bullring exterior in Birmingham, recently. I think it was reported in the recent sales thread for September? 

[John Mitchell]

Alamy does have a "black and white" category, but it is tiny (only 459 images) compared to other categories, which I guess says something about what they think the sales potential is for b&w imagery. The new AIM doesn't have a b&w category option either.

[fotoDogue]

I have a number of Black and White archive photos that have sold (none of which appear in the Black and White Category) but I doubt they've sold because they're black and white.

I suspect photo buyers sort of expect older photos to be in black and white but they seem to prefer color images when they're looking for something contemporary.

 

Of course clients can do their own conversions and they may prefer to do so if they're looking for something more stylistic.

[Vincent Lowe]

I have a few (29) monochromes on sale but only one has ever sold, once only and that was five years ago (personal, internal business use).  A panorama in the Alps - A1B2C2 .