Gravity on Pause – A One Shot Story

By Andrea Monti

19 September, 2025

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One Shot Story
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This a casual shot taken while I was wandering around without actually thinking about taking photographs. Setting aside the photographic quality of the image for a moment, I was amazed that it looks far better in black and white than it did when it was initially shot in colour.


Actually, when I first saw it, I blamed the kit (a Summicron M and an X-T5) for such a poor performance. The main subject is in focus and the aperture and shutter speed are correct. There are no issues with the white balance or tint. Nevertheless, I’m not particularly impressed by this photo.

By contrast, the black-and-white version is, please forgive the pun, a horse of a different colour. The performer naturally pops out from the screen, as demonstrated by how its left shoe in the foreground stands out from the three in the background.

This version of the original image has rehabilitated the photo kit of choice, still it raises a new set questions: is it possible that, when used with a modern 40 megapixel camera, a lens made in the early seventies may struggle with colours and is still usable in black and white? Or was the difference between the two versions simply down to chance or an error on the photographer’s part?

To further explore the matter, I plan to mount the Summicron on a Fujifilm X-T4 to see how its 24-megapixel sensor performs in colour and black and white. This will allow me to test the suspect that new sensors are less tolerant toward old lenses.

Youngsters don’t respect elders anymore, do they?

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About The Author

By Andrea Monti
My name is Andrea Monti. I’m an Italian free-lance journalist, photographer and – in my spare time – an hi-tech lawyer. The works I am more proud of are covering live jazz, pop and rock concerts for an Italian online music magazine and Opera and prose for a 200 years-old theatre. I also do sport photography mainly in athletics and fighting disciplines. You may find out more about me on https://andrea.monti.photography
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Comments

Martin on Gravity on Pause – A One Shot Story

Comment posted: 19/09/2025

Youngsters don’t respect elders anymore, do they?....

Never did, honestly. ;-)
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Gary Smith on Gravity on Pause – A One Shot Story

Comment posted: 19/09/2025

And you are leaving the conversion to black and white up to each of us!
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Richard Arbib on Gravity on Pause – A One Shot Story

Comment posted: 19/09/2025

I prefer your color version to the black & white. The dancer has much brighter colors than the others. The color contrast makes him stand out more than in the black & white photo.
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Tony Warren on Gravity on Pause – A One Shot Story

Comment posted: 19/09/2025

Just shows how personal taste influences reaction to an image doesn't it. The mono version has more impact for me but the colour is attractive because the break dancer has the only colour (apart from the rubbish bin!) to make him stand out. Tonal contrast for the mono and colour contrast in the other. That bin...ouch!
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Geoff Chaplin replied:

Comment posted: 19/09/2025

I agree on the mono image. Generally for me people stand out better in B&W. In this shot the shoe pops into perfect focus and the background actors are almost an irrelevant blur (as is that vile bin).

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Jeffery Luhn on Gravity on Pause – A One Shot Story

Comment posted: 20/09/2025

I like the B&W better. The color shot has...well...too many colors. I still shoot digital (color) for jobs, but my passion is B&W film. The compositions seem to be cleaner without the distractions of color. Of course there are scenes where color makes everything work, but those are limited palette scenes.
Jeffery
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Klaus Wirz on Gravity on Pause – A One Shot Story

Comment posted: 20/09/2025

Your observation, in my humble opinion, has nothing to do with the lens but rather with the way our brain processes and evaluates colors and assigns them priority in perception. Loud and bright colors always push themselves to the forefront. In your picture, that’s the green trash bin and the red backpacks. Because of this distraction from the breakdancer, he appears less three-dimensional than in the black-and-white image.If such distractions can’t be avoided, there’s still the option of isolating the main subject with a wider aperture, but even that wouldn’t completely eliminate the distraction. Could that be the case?
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Leon on Gravity on Pause – A One Shot Story

Comment posted: 20/09/2025

For me the B+W is much better.. With B+W we are forced to stop a look at the picture. work it out. In the B+W version the young dancer definaetly holds centre stage in the picture. The B+W is more impactful than the colour version, it has non background distractions demanding our attention.
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Louis A. Sousa on Gravity on Pause – A One Shot Story

Comment posted: 20/09/2025

HI Andrea, what a great unexpected shot. I like the color palette and agree others that the black and white image makes the dancer stand out much better. What Summicron version did you use? For me, when shooting with Leica lenses (and in my shooting style), resolving power is secondary to the way the lens renders. Since the shot is sharp and well exposed, the only open variable is depth of field. Perhaps if wider aperture was available, the green can would have been softened some. I think the other dancers being sharp adds to the image. The distracting bags in are on roughly the same plane as the other dancers. I think you did a fine job with the spur of the moment image presented to you. Thanks for this and all of your other posts. Louis.
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Alexander Seidler on Gravity on Pause – A One Shot Story

Comment posted: 21/09/2025

Hi Andrea, I thought the same as Klaus already wrote.
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