As my user title says (Photography) It's about the light!
So doing some basic study of colour and light is very helpful.

Doing B&W images and concentrating on tonal range is the other part of it.
Reading some of the classic texts by Ansel Adams (The Camera, The Negative, The Print) will help with the B&W understanding.
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=an...=lnms&tbm=isch