Being just a mere beginner at this sort of thing, I tend to keep things as simple as possible.
This being so, I tend to underexpose by up to 2 stops to bring get the sky right and where I can, use my Canon flash remotely to bring out texture in the subject.
I will then often just use Hew/Saturation/Contrast and Brightness in PS to get the image I want.
While my photo’s aren’t to the same standards as the professionals on here, thanks to the insperation on these pages, I like to think they’re of a reasonable standard (for this site anyway)
I have never used HDR or Lightroom in the past, however all this talk of such has made me very inquisitive so I may look into it and see if it will improve my game.

:o)

Scubi