1st go at this

any input would be greatly appreciated!

This first pic looks like it needs to be straightened. I feel like its falling off the right side of the screen, or is it just me?

Both pics also have a good bit of distortion that makes the walls look convex. Lightroom and Photoshop have some easy options to fix these issues with most lenses. Otherwise, I like the lighting in both, perhaps the back room of the first could be brighter as it looks to have some interesting features in it..

Edit: I can now see the layout of the room. That dark portion is actually the tinted glass behind the reception desk. Ignore that remark.

These are much better than most 1st shots we see. In #1, the left wall is leaning, & you should try to be aware of multiple shadows.
I might crop some off the top of #2.

Pretty solid for the first attempt!

The straightening issue for the first image has been mentioned.

Both of these images are shot too wide for my taste. I don't know what your background is, but if you're coming from real estate shooting, you should think about architectural interiors differently. There's a lot of empty space in both images, so you could be tighter for those. This kind of photography should focus on the features of the space, not necessarily the size.

As a rule, I like to use the longest focal length I can to shoot a given interior to reduce distortion. Sometimes they have to be shot at 17mm for various reasons, but when I can get away with 24mm or longer, I'll do that every time.

The lighting in the second one could use some tweaking. Generally the viewer's eye will be drawn to the brightest part of an image, which in the second one is the paintings on the wall, which are overexposed. The seating area with red chairs is kind of the focal point, so maybe darken the wall with the paintings, and dodge the chairs just a bit. Play around with some tighter crops too possibly.

^^^ thank you for all those pointers...

YES! that 1st one is too much to the right... for some reason I didn't see this. I had 30min to PP and send it to the client for a quick pitch they had to another firm.
and the advice on the light wall with painting is great, I never looked at it this way.

Seriously, thank you so much for these little detail pointers!!

It looks like you didn't utilize any of the lens profile corrections while editing these. As mentioned, tighter crops and vertical perspective corrections would help you tremendously.

I agree with the wall art being too bright, otherwise these are really good for your first attempt!

I agree that in the second the lighter part of the photograph where the paintings are and the darker part of the photograph where the smoke glass is are too interesting to my eyes. I keep looking back and forth at that and do not enter the room.

In the first one, if you were taking for the manufacturer of the sign, you would want to reduce the shadows around that.

In the first one, the wall paper on the right is slightly too over exposed. I keep wanting to see the texture in that.

What do you all think about the door and the chair legs on the left of the second one?

It has been a long time since I did corrections for perspective. I used to use Lens Doc. I don't use Photoshop or Lightroom. I am thinking of getting a standalone copy of DxO ViewPoint for my perspective and distortion correction. What do you all think of that? Is there a better product you would use, or do use, to make the walls stand up vertical and make the walls straight instead of curved?

Timza wrote in post #17880521
In the first one, if you were taking for the manufacturer of the sign, you would want to reduce the shadows around that.

I think the shadows are fine and certainly some are necessary to show the depth of the lettering. It might look unnatural to remove shadows/flatten it out.

Why don't you use Photoshop for perspective correction? Are you talking about fixing barrel distortion, or just straightening things? I generally use lens profiles for distortion correction in LR, and then I fine tune the keystone correction in PS. What advantage do you see by not using either of these programs?

I agree with the shadows in the lettering, but not the shadows to the left and right of the sign, if one was photographing for the manufacturer of the sign.

I have been away from photography as a hobby for a long time. For the last several years I have been doing industrial photography with point and shoot cameras for technical reports, and worked hard to take and retake photographs onsite that did not require "post processing." I have been looking at getting a better compact camera and software to give me lens and perspective corrections, but in my mind I see myself using fairly simple equipment and stand alone specialized software.