I've been posting some old photographs I took on sets in the adult movie industry on Flickr. Lately, I've been switching them from color into black and white. Some of the photos are almost "too much," at least at this time, in color, and this rendering seems to help turn them into something, say, more iconic.
I eliminate the color, and then mess with the brightness and contrast. I've made some of them too bright on purpose. I think this sort of bad processing effect actually helps turns them into something else.
You can see the NSFW black-and-white Valley set here. If you don't see all the photos, you may need to turn your Flickr SafeSearch off. You can do that by going to Your Account > Privacy & Permissions > Content Filters > Search Settings > SafeSearch off.