In today's saturated-color manipulated-image world, black and white feels real. To many, it looks fresh. Black and white photography is a great way to learn about the photographic medium. Most photography classes start out teaching black and white photography. Black and white photography is different than color photography because we lack the luxury of colors, so instead, we must depend on capturing the excitment of light to breathe life into the image. Lighting is a big key to creating a great black and white image.
When developing black and white film in a dark room you have to be careful because a correctly exposed black and white image will contain neither black, nor white, but varying shades of gray. You want to try to get the correct shades of gray throughout the photo.