On 1-3, oof replied... "Would be astounding as a high-tone B/W." I reprocessed the original color DNG file using Silver Efex Pro-2, for a comparison of the color to the B/W. In retrospect, I do prefer the B/W image. Thanks to oof for the suggestion!
Thanks again oof. I'm still understanding the workings of Silver Efex. I've found if one pushes selective area adjustments too extreme, the image begins to degrade quickly, especially high-contrast edges.
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