How it was done.

This image of the Renaissance Center in Detroit was a mid-day shot from the roof of an adjacent building.  This is a brief description of the edits performed on this file.

The RAW file...

This was a mid-day partly sunny sky.  Luckily I was able to catch the shot with the sun behind the clouds, so contrast wasn't too harsh.  It's a bland, flat image, so to the computer I go!

Lightroom Edits...

First thing I did was crop the image, then I adjust exposure and drop the highlights and boost the shadows, then add a little sharpening and saturation to the blues in the sky.  I also, added some magenta to the highlights and cooled the shadows.

Area 1:  I brightened these areas just a bit, added clarity, and a little dehaze filter on the building.

Area 2:  I darkened the sky on the sides and burned in some of the trees for depth.  Burning and dodging different area's of the image creates depth and interest!

Area 3:  I "turned on the lights" in the lamp posts to make things feel "alive".  It's minor detail, but I feel it looks better to have the street lights on, even in the daylight.

I also did some selective de-focus in parts of the image to create depth and interest, also, to hide distractions in the picture.

Final Image.

A nice, simple shot of the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit.