Have your image displayed on the LCD display and press the OK button in the center of the multi-function button. Select monochrome from the menu that pops up, then black and white. Although I prefer to convert to B&W in post processing such as Lightroom, Photoshop, Apeture etc. Hope that helps.

Press the MENU button on the back of the D90. Using the arrows around the "OK" button, select "Shooting Menu", which is the second menu down (it looks like a camera), select "Set Picture Control", and select "Monochrome". Press "OK', and you should be set!

You don't. Sensor get light from your lens and capture the image. It comes in color right? :)

Then you grab your image (JPG or RAW) and turn it into the B&W snapshot. You can do it on your computer: iPhoto on MAC or Photoshop on PC. But you can do it right on your camera. On d90 hit the menu and then select Retouching (square with the brush) and choose Monochrome. Then select 1 of the 3 options and it will load your image list from your SSD card. Select image you like to turn B&W (hit OK) and BAM - you got 2 copies - colored and monochrome. Enjoy!

You must go to «shooting menu» - «set picture control» - «monochrome»

After you have various option like sepia...

Two ways:
1. You can take your color photo and edit it in your favorite photo editing software.
2. You can push the "info" button on your D90. This will bring up the information screen. Push the "info" button again, and it will highlight the items on the bottom of the screen. Move the highlighted area to "Set Picture Control", and choose "Monochrome." Your photos will now be taken in black and white.

To Shoot B&W with the D90. Do the following. Open MENU to SHOOTING MENU(first item). Go to Set Picture Control. Push the OK button and slect MC*Monochrome* push OK again. Close MENU. Once set you can start shooting B&W.
Another way is go ahead and shoot in color then convert to B&W. Then go to MENU again open RETOUCH MENU and pick Monochrome then you can choose B&W or SEPIA or Cyanotype. then you pick the picture you want to convert to B&W push ok then save. It will create a new B&W picture. You do not lose the original color picture.

go to MENU and then select SET PICTURE CONTROL and then select MONOCHROME and then exit by pressing MENU button. that should set you up in taking black and white photo. enjoy and have fun taking photos..

you can go into full auto mode until you start to feel comfortable with the camera. It will adjust everything for you and you will get good quality pictures from auto. Once you are used to how it feels and seeing what it does in auto start to play. :)

Best thing is to find a college or university- maybe even a local school who offer a basic course in SLR photography. I took one as a refresher and it was great.

Some of the best advice I had when I read about DSLR is to set your camera up on a tripod and start taking pictures - changing the settings as you go, and then checking the differences out when you have played and played with them. The best part of digital- you only pay for what you print- all the rest are great practice.

I suggest you get the book called The D90 companion by Ben Long. This has a wealth of information and much more understandable then the manual.

Yes there are standard settings. There is the basic "point and shoot" setting, like in most (if not all) Nikon cameras. There are also some presets as well. I generally use the aperature selection setting that allows you to select the aperture. Generally I think that using the f-stop 8 is great for nature photos. Alot of the great photos also depend on the lens that you use. While the kit lens is quite good, there are great lenses out there that will reduce the geometric distortion and color aberations. You also will need to make sure that the ISO setting is appropriate for the amount of light. I generally keep the ISO at 400 and auto, whch means that it will prefer 400 but can change this if 400 is not going to expose properly.
In general, if you are a beginner, try to use the automatic presets until you feel comfortable and little by little begin to experiment with using manual settings changing things one by one to see what they do.
Also, remember that you can take an image and save the NEF and the jpg together. This will allow you to edit the NEF and perhaps make some corrections. I use capture NX2 for this. Aoot of the images that you will find on the web have probably been "corrected" -- this includes sharpening and color correction, white balance, and correcting the lens distortions and the color aberations. This is why they look so good.
Finally, when you really get used to the camera, alot of these corrections can be made during capture time. Of course if you save the NEF, you can change even these corrections. You can manually determine the white balance, and add sharpening and noise corrections and many other things that will happen during processing. This will allow you to be in a situation where the editing that you need to do will be minimalized.
I hope all this is clear. Good luck, you have a great camera.

Use the landscape mode, that will give you better focus of all the play with out adjusting.

I use shutter speed priority set at about 1/30 sec. along with an ISO of about 800. Using a VR lens produces nice results for me. Shoot a few test shots to see that the exposure graph is fully used without crowding either end of the graph. Use the ISO to adjust the basic exposure level to get full usage of the low light ability of the D90. (If there is a chance to shoot a dress rehearsal, you can quickly find the needed settings for the full production)

Use the action or sport setting to capture the motion.