You are absolutely right. I figure it would be best to do it at night, with a light shining in towards them from outside, giving them the rim light you want.
Ah, give them a chance, I guess.
Don't change your editing workflow, of course. Just convert your file to Adobe RGB when you're preparing the print file.
Alas, no, it's too clumsy. Much slicker to keep them as two separate actions, and have them set up as two F keys on your keyboard. Eg F2 to run the BW, then choose the layer/s, then F3 to save the PSD.
Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever crop during editing.
You're doing the right thing by holding down the Alt key, and ignoring clipping in that area.
No, the clipping doesn't matter. But are you sure about cloning? Maybe copying and flipping from the other side might be better.
Yes, it's a calibration issue.
Windows Photo is not a colour-managed program. If it matches your prints, that is nothing more than STAGGERINGLY good luck. And of course it's pointless, because you need the program that you edit your photos in to be the one that matches your prints.
https://www.damiensymonds.net/what2buy_cal.html