Thank you Susan.
I think that the exposure handling is chiefly thanks to the Fuji X100, which I still love (and not least because I carried it on my 35 mile bike ride to shoot these today, in a bumbag, without being aware of it). I shoot raw files and use the Fuji/Silkpix converter, which has good highlight recovery, and save as TIFFs. I then used Silver Efex Pro. (My version of this is the old one, because I messed up my ability to use the newer version a while back. Though it is now freely available, I can't use it because I've not got a 64 bit computer). I then opened the TIFF in Photoshop Elements 7 and used the SEP filter. There is usually a preset that gives a result which serves as a good starting point. I then added a few control points to do little bit of selective lightening here and there, and used the "out of the tin" sepia toning (number 18)