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nice pictures Brian... but i really think you need to...

Open your Levels adjustment (Ctrl-L on Win and Cmd-L on Mac). There are three sliders under the histogram display, left is for darkening the shadows, middle is for adjusting the mid-tones, and right is for lightening the highlights. To check for blown highlights, hold down the ALT key (Option key on Mac) and click-and-hold the right highlight slider. The image will drastically change but it's only a preview. The solid white areas are the highlights that are completely blown out. As you move the slider left, more highlights can be blown out. The idea is to move the slider as far left as possible without making any solid white areas in the preview. Do the same for adjusting the shadows with the left slider. Doing this to both the highlights and shadows will maximize contrast without going too far.

And i think you will get a better result!!!