For the moment I have decided to scan all my black and white negatives with a simple rule. Turning off the scanner software's auto exposure, the bottom of the histogram will be 0 and the top 255, with an gamma of 1.25 and the tone curve set to linear.
This allows me to 1) reduce the number of variables so that I can learn more easily the effects of manipulation in GIMP, and 2) should, in theory, be a more constant, predictable and and perhaps accurate representation of the characteristics of the film itself.
