Denny Tang's High clarity effect

This is very similar to the Dave Hill effect. I wouldn't be surprised if this were the beginning part of the dave hill treatment.

http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/photo-effects/high-clarity/all-pages.html

Basically, you
1)convert your picture to a smart object
2) shadow/highlight and move shadows to 50%
3) Make your picture black and white via auto BW
4) Put in overlay mode over original photo
5) smart sharpen
6) mask out anything you didn't want sharpened.