The thing with black and white, is that the image can no longer rely on "pretty colours" to "make" a picture. Instead, the composition takes center stage. In a way, it makes black and white more difficult than colour photo, simply because it can be much more difficult to take we the artist himself feels to be "acceptable" photography. Many photographers start off with colour, and shift to black and white afterwards, and they often find it to be a great challenge. As for cropping, I dunno, but I like the final image most. The great challenge is to shoot pics that don't actually need to be cropped, which is a big f'in challenge that I know I haven't mastered yet. Also, even though I only shoot colour ever so rarely, I often take black and white pics simply because my eyes think the colours look great in a pic. Kinda sucks when u develop the film and think "Wtf was I thinking?" ry bobs his head to Static-X's "Black and White"