Joan did it, Hamish, and I asked for the Pro CD. I'll phone her later today to ask about the contrast, and recommendations, etc. The CD came with low, medium and high res images.
Rob - assume Joan has saved files as JPEGs for you? - so file size could be around 1-2Mb for a high res scan
If you open one in Photoshop, what is the image size in pixels? That's the key metric.
My 6x9 image 'enhanced' scans come in at around 7139 x 4903 pixels - and are 1-2 MB on the CD.
When I open them into Photoshop as a 16 Bit Image, Photoshop generates a 100-200 MB PSD file.
Might be worth shooting a test roll of color film - all of the same scene
Set up the camera on a tripod and shoot a roll with a range of exposures - starting with the meter reading exposure, and then doing one stop variations up and down giving you a range of exposures +/-
Make notes of which is which so you can review when they come back from scanning.
Take a shot of the scene with a digital camera set to the same exposure as the meter, just for ref.
When you get the scans back - review and see if there's a difference between the metered reading and the best looking exposure. You may have been under exposing the film - or your meter may be off - or the camera exposure may be offset from the meter - or you may have set the ASA wrong etc etc.
Slide film will show the exposure differences more clearly, as it's far more critical of 'correct' exposure - A good excuse to throw a roll of Fuji Velvia through the camera
Regarding the B&W - I like to fit a Yellow filter when shooting B&W, as this produces more punchy images. The filter is less punchy than a RED filter, which produces black skies etc - but Yellow is enough to make a nice difference. The filters are cheap as no-one uses them these days - Hoya or such like on Amazon or EBAY - I use the K2 Yellow (There are variations in the color of Yellow)
Here's what Ilford have to say about using a Yellow filter:
ILFORD PHOTO - Yellow Filter
This also leads me to a 'trick' that you might want to try when using a Yellow filter.
The Yellow filter reduces the light hitting the film, so in theory you need to offset your hand-held light meter by a stop or so to compensate for this. (Through the lens metering would see the yellow filter and adjust itself)
However... I have had good results leaving the hand-held meter as is, and shooting with the filter on - so technically I am underexposing the film to a small extent.
Worth a trial to see if you like the effect of the Yellow filter, and then the effect of the un-compensated metering vs compensated metering.
Personally I love shooting Ilford PanF (50 ASA) as the grain is insanely small - but it does require sunlight and/or tripod as exposure times can get long with small aperture settings.
