Cleaning up my pictures

[aggiesrwe03]

I am just now learning Lightroom, and would like some critique/advice from the pros!! let me know what you think, and if I'm on the right track??

Before (I ran this through an HDR app. on my phone prior to putting it on the computer and accidentally deleted the RAW image, I won't do that again!!)


After, sharpened, reduced noise, removed blades and motor, fixed exposure, but still doesn't look right to me...



Before



After just did color correction, and sharpening

 

[Larry L]

Looks good Mr. Aggie. Light room is a powerful program. It has all kinds of filters & adjustments. You are smart using the raw setting. Do you use Photoshop at all? I know where their lens correction is in PS. I looked at the water tower & thought to my self, I know where Snook is. They have a great Chili fest

 

[LuvMyTJ]

Looking good. By the way, I moved this to 'Editing' for you.

 

[4wd]

One thing it does well is remove the lens distortion, but the default often needs a slight tweak manually.
I like to use the grad tool to reduce exposure in the sky.
Then often reduce highlights slightly.
Vibrance and clarity are useful but go easy with them.
Noise reduction works well too, try about halfway along but beware of making it look too 'plastic'