anyone have suggestions on what to use for lighting and making props/pictures look better in general?
Well, a good step would be to hit up Facepunch, they have tons of interesting tutorials for lighting, tons of assets and inspiration. For lighting, check out
Ninja Nub's lighting tutorial. Once you get some good lighting down your images will already look 10x better without having to edit in tons of silly lighting bullstuff
Another step in the right direction would be to learn how to scenebuild. There are very, VERY few, if no maps, built specifically to look good for posing shots. Scenebuilding gives us the power to construct a background that is dynamic, fluid, easy to manipulate, responds well to lighting, ect. Look for foliage props, any detail props, building props, stuff like that