Thank you all for the advice 🙂 It is encouraging to hear that maybe I’m not as terrible as my inner perfectionist tries to convince me I am.  All the suggestions you made for  improvement were in areas that I’m aware that I’m lacking, so it’s reassuring to know that I’m on the right track as far as knowing what I need to work on.
To answer some questions- My monitor has been calibrated although not for a long time so I’m sure it needs to be done again. I don’t have my own calibrator but it is near the top on my (long) list of equipment that I need to buy.
I really don’t play too much with the contrast & saturation, I think most of the time I’m scared that I’ll go overboard if I try and end up making things worse but I guess I should give it a try and just be conscious of not over doing it and see if that makes a difference.
White balance I think is my biggest challenge. I just start fiddling with the custom settings in ACR and then when I get it to the point that I think I’ve got it right, I second guess myself and keep playing when I really should have just left it. Maybe I’d be better off getting a grey card and bypass changing it myself altogether. Or just keep practising.
Thank you again for the advice, it really is appreciated.
