Quite apart from the historical cost advantage (when using film of course), there's another big advantage
B&amp;W takes away the colour, forcing you to focus your attention on composition and lighting, rather than relying on a brilliant array of colours to hide flaws in those.

I never regretted starting out with black and white film, even though colour film was available (but more expensive at the time). It led me to pay much more attention to composition and light at all times, as well as the cost (which was still high) forcing me to think more before exposing the frame, rather than just shooting off a dozen frames hoping something good would come out.

Is it better for a beginner to start with black and white photography?
I've got headphones plugged into my desktop, and a laptop nearby that I use for work as well.  Whenever I touch my MacBook Pro with the noise-canceling on my headphones turned on, it makes my headphones go nuts, creating a lot of buzzing, crackling, and popping.

I assume this has something to do with conduction between my hands and the computer, but is there any way to get around this?
