in black and white Herbsman

Shot in shade on a bright day. This has come out to be very bland. Please

recommend ways to make this image better (I did not increase contrast too

much for fear of losing out some detail in the room behind the man). Many

thanks.

I do not see anything in the room behind on my monitor unless I brighten a lot. 

I tried to improve without much success. And you are better in photo.shop than I.

Are you shooting in Raw?

Are you shooting Raw with some menue option turned on that should not be turned on?

I have no probable idea  why the photo came out this way according to your notes -shade.

I have had similar looking photos under artifical light of of the wrong kind for my white balance setting. I could not salvage the photo. Wish I'd have saved an example

Be interesting to see how this would look if you shot with a very small amount of fill-flash.

Something really went wrong! at least on my monitor. Sorry I cannot help.

Are you shooting "White Balance" "Auto"?

Thank you for your helpful input.

I have been shooting RAW over the last few months, but vary the white balance according to the situation. The WB for this was either sunlight or shade; I cannot remember exactly. It was definitely not 'Auto' as I do not use auto for anything.

Your rendition of the photo is certainly better than mine, for it has got rid of the awful blandness to an extent.

I don't know much about white balance  but if not white balance then I have no idea.  I always shoot in "auto" and think it does not much matter if shooting outdoors and the image is desatured. Maybe go back, try auto WITHOUT COLOR CORRECTION!!! and see if you can figure out what happened.

Here is an image I took. White Balance 'Automatic' which was wrong for the lighting inside the shop as seen in the color version. And  when desaturated the photo was unusable. You said "Bland".