I highly recomend the response previous to mine. I took a class at the community college in my area concernig B & W photography and got utterly hooked! I loved it, and there were soooo many different things to learn. Taking a class helped me to sort out the details, and not only learn to process my own film and prints, but helped me to take better pictures.(posted 8348 days ago)I recomend the Kodak products, film, processing chemicals and paper, as I have found them to be most consistent in quaility. I've tried Ilford, and Forte papers, and they seem to be a bit trickier to work with. I like them now, but as a beginner, it is easiest to pick one brand, get used to it, and get good at it, before you wander into other varieties.