This was taken at one of our local parks here in WA, probably Kings Park as it's near to the city. My question is simply this how was it taken and what settings used, that dark look even though it is vibrant and bright still? The image is taken from mu local online newspapers out and about feature.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find a starting photo that was really close to the example you posted. For example, in the image that I finally used, the subjects are dressed in colors, not B&W (as in your example), and the illumination in the image I finally used is very soft (overcast day), whereas in yours, it's strong, high contrast sunlight coming from high and behind the subjects and slightly to our left. Nevertheless, here's the way I would approach such a transformation ...
First, here's the image I started with:
Next, one can do a lot with this image using only ACR:
Finally, if you want to get closer to the look in your example image, one can also "spread the darks", in almost the exact way one might make the highlights on a portrait turn into a glow.
HTH,
T