This is the question, something I’ve struggled with. I recently purchased a Leica M8 to shoot in color. My only camera at the time was a Q2 Monochrom. Come to find out, the M8 is a wonderful black and white camera.
The photos in the post all have some things in common. A 28mm focal length, all black and white…but maybe the not so obvious is they are all shot in dull gray weather. I’ve come to find out that I’m really bad at post processing color photos in less than ideal weather. I know it’s possible, but I’m just not there yet.
I believe the moment is the most important thing is street photography. And moments occur in all lighting. Just so happens that sunny Southern California hasn’t been so sunny this year. Since 2023 it has rarely been sunny at all, solidifying the need for me to shoot in black and white. Now some of these photos looked good in color, but the lighting was dull and uninspiring. I’m able to make them pop in black and white. The post processing is a breeze in Silver Efex Pro.
Another option if I want to shoot in dull weather is to shoot flash. I’m able to make interesting light and I like the images. Flash is basically a cheat code in my eyes. But I don’t want to shoot flash all the time and my go to for flash would be the GR3 and Q2M. As weird as it sounds, the Q2M is overkill. The GR is fragile so I limit it’s use as much as possible. And shooting a rangefinder is the most fun way in my eyes to shoot street photography, so I I’m more inspired to shoot with the M8.
What do you think? Are you in the same boat as me? Can you make a nice color image in dull weather. I don’t think of black and white as a knock off alternative to color for my street photography, but necessary to inspire me to keep working at it regardless of conditions.
I want to continue exploring color photography. It’s another challenge. Something to keep me intrigued. I don’t want to keep making the same images. But looking at the weather, no sun for the next week. Been an odd 2023 in Santa Monica. Black and white for the foreseeable future.
Anyways, here’s a slideshow of the photos as well. Cheers and keep shooting.
Chris Athanasiadis 
All these bw images are great in terms of happening inside the frames. I don’t see any need in colors. For me color is distortion and mostly is an enemy of perception. Sometimes i really want them – for rock n roll events taken with the flash – when the flash adds all the spectrum of the colors. Sometimes for the street photography, but not for some taken separately red hat or blue-red stripes of t-shirt. For the dull days i can recommend you to shot in AV on the most higher aperture. Not too good for street photography, but the colors are preserving better and more natural and bold even when the day is dull as in your situation.
Yes I tend to agree. A few of these looked good in color but they all look good in bw which should tell me something. I just want a new challenge in shooting color. We’ll see where the photo journey takes me. And I was never into the red hat photos or similar…I like the moment more than the color.