Lovely designs in the half n half. Have you tried in your post processing to increase the lightness of the highlights a bit? Your dark areas are great, as are the mid tones.
If your photo editor has the capability, you might try copying the layer, then using the dodge tool (if it has one) in areas of the H n H, to bring out more highlights, increasing the tonal range of the image slightly.
Or possibly a subtle Curves of Levels adjustment might work, but it'd have to be carefully done to avoid losing your great mid tones.