I am happy to announce that we have added a new Genre to choose from..

Monochrome/Black and White

It's another option for those that like to post Monochrome/Black and White images..

I think one could also post sepia images in this genre as well..

 

Just for clarification does this include everything that would be perceived as a "black and white", not just sepia but every type of toning?

An interesting addition as it is evidently aimed at photographers, but rather strange considering it is not entirely a genre but a method which is used in all genres... Take for example the layman's question when trying to sound interested in your hobby/profession: "Oh so you are a photographer - what do you prefer, landscape or portrait photography?" Both can be in black and white... Does this not just confuse the categorisation of uploads with redundancies?

Maybe having the ability to categorise your upload into two genres (chosen by author of course) say Genre1: Portrait - Genre2: B&W

This could also work with other combinations already present. Abstract and Architecture, Landscape and Scenic (never really understood the difference to be honest), Romance and Portraits come to mind for instance.

That means that the upload is better found when people want to look for black and white photos, but dont get to see the ones the member puts into say landscape but are still black and white...

(PS Hands up who has been asked that Landscape/portrait question btw )

Yes Rich sepia and single tone images will be fine.  Yes it is aimed at photography we did ask for it.  It has been noticed that over the last few months more and more members are posting Black & White/ Single tone images.  These are being put all over the gallery, from landscape to Atmosphere/Mood, Architecture to people and the list goes on.  We thought it would be good to try to group them all together.

The two genre idea has been brought up before..

The idea is to just give the members more options when uploading images..

I'm all for it..... since I am especially into monochromatic and tonal photos myself (not just for posting my photos, but also viewing others). I know that some people search by genre, but I tend to want to see the whole shmo. I think I would use this one tho...... thanks!!!

From my point of view the Genre option and resulting galleries are a viewer side application; someone wants to look at portraits, they go to the portrait gallery - the only reason for categorising a photo on the photographer's side is to create a framework to view the photo through (and it is therefore quite patronising to present a black and white photo with B&W as the framework to view it through if you think about it).  Now, i suppose you could argue that if someone wants to just view black and whites, they can go to the black and white genre gallery. Fair enough but, and maybe this is just me, if i wanted to look at just black and whites it would be for a very specific reason (to see how people deal with the style within a genre for instance) i wouldnt just want to browse black and white photos which could range across all genres, it would just be like turning your monitor to monochrome and viewing the galleries without a genre set... no point imo (based on the assumption that you chose a genre to browse through for viewing reasons).

Also the galleries which are seeing this influx of B&W photography are going to loose out in diversity of styles presented to the members viewing that gallery. Take for instance the attitude (and i'll confess to have held it in the past) that "black and white photography is boring and for old people who cant handle the vibrancy of colour" (or something along those lines).  Surely if people put the black and white photos in that "genre" someone browsing the portrait galleries with the above attitude will not come across black and white portraits as much and will not be able to expand as a photographer by appreciating black and whites through exposure to them.

Sure, not everyone will chose B&W over portraits, but say 50% do, you still get that water-down effect...

Taking this to the logical extreme (defining a genre by "style of photo") and so my point is made very clearly: picture the landscape gallery in all it's glory.  Now (completely) take out:

B&W
Tonemapped/HDR
Selective Desats
Panoramas
Square Crops
Long exposure
Aerial
... (i could go on with tighter and tighter styles here but i think you get the point)

And what do you have left...? a rather confined view on the world, completely devoid of any stylistic diversity. And probably around 50% of the headcount you had before sectioning off the shots to different areas...

So anyway - you might have realised that i dont think it is a good idea to group B&W's together...

Just one view tho, it is a community after all - anyone else got any thoughts?

And on a further note - it was a black and white photo i saw in the landscape galleries on here which changed my perception of black and white photos, and got me to sit up and take note of the style, realising that they can be as exciting as colour photos.

I have to agree with Rich in that I don't see B/W as a genre, but as a secondary categorization (at least I understood his reply in that way). I think I will still post a B/W landscape under the Landscape genre if only one categorization level is allowed/provided.

Good grief..it's just another genre..if ya don't want to use it, you don't have to..

That wasnt the point tho Bruce.  It may be up to the author to "use it" but it is then the viewer who suffers from the inability to view the full range a genre can offer through no fault of his/her own.

Anyway - i suppose the point is academic.  I doubt anything will change or anyone really care too much.

Attached Link: Shameless Plug

Well, I for one am happy with the option of the new genre. It is just there to give member more options. Why, I just uploaded my first image to it today. You make valid points, but one could beat to death the genre and categorization issue. We could have Photo/Portrait-pinup-glamour-black&white-humor.... all for the same image, and then some. The keywords give member another tool for helping images get found if someone searches for something specific. Considering the vast number of images already uploaded and single genre, I am not sure enacting the option for multiple genre classifications would make much sense at this point. But it can always be discussed and who knows what the future holds...

"It may be up to the author to "use it" but it is then the viewer who suffers from the inability to view the full range a genre can offer through no fault of his/her own."

I agree with Kort, that the genre is only a tool which someone may or may not want to use to find a more specific type of photograph.
I'm sure most people, like myself, just pull up Photography/Other to display all the current photos uploaded. If I wanted to see a specific type of photo, say portrait, I have that option...... why shouldn't I have the option to look up B&W photos only? I don't think of it as being a vague genre, but the alternative would be a search engine so we could be even more specific. Say I only wanted to look at "cat" pictures or only pictures with a lake in it. That opens up a whole new ball of wax!

"why shouldn't I have the option to look up B&W photos only?"

I'm not saying that you shouldnt i'm just saying that the method by which the gallery is constructed to allow you to do that is detrimental to someone saying

"why shouldn't I have the option to look up enter any other genre but B&W photos only?"

as the black and white photos in those galleries will have migrated to the B&W only gallery and therefore will not be available in the "proper" genre.

"Say I only wanted to look at "cat" pictures or only pictures with a lake in it. That opens up a whole new ball of wax!"

There are keywords and a keyword specific upload search for a reason should the photographer wish to use them...

QUOTE inshaala

*"why shouldn't I have the option to look up enter any other genre but B&W photos only?"

as the black and white photos in those galleries will have migrated to the B&W only gallery and therefore will not be available in the "proper" genre."

*Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I don't recall reading that existing or New images that happen to be B&W are now going to be moved or allocated to the new genre.  RR staff  have enough to do, as it is, without having to police this kind of thing.  

If Renderosity had to cater to EVERY possible scenerio,  I doubt we would even be able to look at images in the gallery.   The backend database would be so busy filtering, drilling down and querying the gallery data that the site would probably cease to function. 

Yes, there are ALOT (probably too many) genres and YES many overlap each other in one way or another.  It is what it is....just make the best of it.

J:woot:E

I see that the staff is trying to promote this new genre (e.g. via Oom Piet under the LWitG collage)... So, let me say that I share Rich's thoughts : "Monochrome - B&W" is not a genre (pictures from all genres can be converted to B&W) and I'm not going to use it !

May be a suggestion : create 3 sub-galleries under the general heading "Photography" :

• Color photography
• B&W photography
• Photomanipulation (which is not a genre neither), Animated,...

But I'm almost sure that this will not be implemented...
So, I prefer not to use the classification "Monochrome/Black and white" !

Talking about real genres, I for sure would appreciate the creation of the genre "Birds"

But finally, this is not very important : nobody is really paying attention to the classification...

"But finally, this is not very important : nobody is really paying attention to the classification..."

I totally agree, and as far as I'm concerned, they might as well just have the heading "Photography" and get rid of all the genres! As Rich was saying, anyone can look up specifics by keywords and that leaves the rest of us to just pull up ALL photographs and not miss anything! This is what Rich is implying and simple would be better, but really guys....... come on....... wouldn't that just take all the fun out of it????    Lighten up!

 Awesome. I used to do sepia, but stopped for some reason. I'll have to check this out.