diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b9a9dd2..d9fd954 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -189,12 +189,12 @@ Dockviz supports connecting to the Docker daemon directly.  It defaults to `unix
 Dockviz also supports receiving Docker image or container json data on standard input.
 
 ```
-$ curl -s http://localhost:4243/images/json?all=1 | dockviz images --tree
-$ curl -s http://localhost:4243/containers/json?all=1 | dockviz containers --dot | dot -Tpng -o containers.png
-$ echo -e "GET /images/json?all=1 HTTP/1.0\r\n" | nc -U /var/run/docker.sock | sed '1,/^[[:space:]]*$/d' | dockviz images --tree
-$ echo -e "GET /containers/json?all=1 HTTP/1.0\r\n" | nc -U /var/run/docker.sock | sed '1,/^[[:space:]]*$/d' | dockviz containers --dot | dot -Tpng -o containers.png
-$ echo -e "GET /images/json?all=1 HTTP/1.0\r\n" | nc -U /var/run/docker.sock | sed '1,/^[[:space:]]*$/d' | docker run -i nate/dockviz images --tree
-$ echo -e "GET /containers/json?all=1 HTTP/1.0\r\n" | nc -U /var/run/docker.sock | sed '1,/^[[:space:]]*$/d' | docker run -i nate/dockviz containers --dot | dot -Tpng -o containers.png
+$ curl -s http://localhost:4243/images/json?all=1 | dockviz --stdin images --tree
+$ curl -s http://localhost:4243/containers/json?all=1 | dockviz --stdin containers --dot | dot -Tpng -o containers.png
+$ echo -e "GET /images/json?all=1 HTTP/1.0\r\n" | nc -U /var/run/docker.sock | sed '1,/^[[:space:]]*$/d' | dockviz --stdin images --tree
+$ echo -e "GET /containers/json?all=1 HTTP/1.0\r\n" | nc -U /var/run/docker.sock | sed '1,/^[[:space:]]*$/d' | dockviz --stdin containers --dot | dot -Tpng -o containers.png
+$ echo -e "GET /images/json?all=1 HTTP/1.0\r\n" | nc -U /var/run/docker.sock | sed '1,/^[[:space:]]*$/d' | docker run -i nate/dockviz --stdin images --tree
+$ echo -e "GET /containers/json?all=1 HTTP/1.0\r\n" | nc -U /var/run/docker.sock | sed '1,/^[[:space:]]*$/d' | docker run -i nate/dockviz --stdin containers --dot | dot -Tpng -o containers.png
 ```
 
 Note: GNU netcat doesn't support `-U` (UNIX socket) flag, so OpenBSD variant can be used.
diff --git a/cli.go b/cli.go
index b58ba95..4851e56 100644
--- a/cli.go
+++ b/cli.go
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ type GlobalOptions struct {
 	TLSVerify bool   `long:"tlsverify" description:"Use TLS and verify the remote"`
 	Host      string `long:"host" short:"H" value-name:"unix:///var/run/docker.sock" description:"Docker host to connect to"`
 	Version   func() `long:"version" short:"v" description:"Display version information."`
+	Stdin     bool   `long:"stdin" description:"Enable reading image information from stdin (pre-Docker-1.11 only)"`
 }
 
 var globalOptions GlobalOptions
diff --git a/containers.go b/containers.go
index 4a19997..de1f79a 100644
--- a/containers.go
+++ b/containers.go
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ func (x *ContainersCommand) Execute(args []string) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("error reading stdin stat", err)
 	}
 
-	if (stat.Mode() & os.ModeCharDevice) == 0 {
+	if globalOptions.Stdin && (stat.Mode()&os.ModeCharDevice) == 0 {
 		// read in stdin
 		stdin, err := ioutil.ReadAll(os.Stdin)
 		if err != nil {
diff --git a/images.go b/images.go
index fa2e988..ca202b7 100644
--- a/images.go
+++ b/images.go
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ func (x *ImagesCommand) Execute(args []string) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("error reading stdin stat", err)
 	}
 
-	if (stat.Mode() & os.ModeCharDevice) == 0 {
+	if globalOptions.Stdin && (stat.Mode()&os.ModeCharDevice) == 0 {
 		// read in stdin
 		stdin, err := ioutil.ReadAll(os.Stdin)
 		if err != nil {