Response to beginner - getting b/w film developed? help!!

If you really want to learn black and white photography you are going to have to bite the bullet and develop and print your own. Its not hard to learn. Maybe the best way is to look for a basin photo course at a local community college. Lacking that, a trip to the library is in order to find out about film tanks, developer, fixer etc. For a start, you neednt have an enlarger. Make contact sheets (your whole roll printed on one sheet of paper) Any closet that you can darken will serve for loading film. For making contact sheets, the laundry room or the bathroom will do. The C-41 "black&white" films are actually single layer (I think -- others please comment) color negative films with a different color background mask. They process in the 1 hour machines, and usually print with a sepia tone. They will also print just fine as a black and white negative, with perhaps an adjustment of contrast filters. The lady at the drug store will probably give you a strange look when you bring it in. Just tell them to call their parent lab, they should be up to speed on this film by now.

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