A tripod is an absolute must, no questions asked. A quality lens, comes right after that. Once you have the proper tools, then you need to work on framing your pictures properly. Unwanted distractions that break up the photo need to go (IE, light poles, stop signs, stuff like that), along with crazy angles that people think make a photo interesting, but in the end, all it does is make peoples head tilt and just become uncomfortable lol. No insult intended, but your first photo was one of those :-/. *edit* Actually, on second thought, your picture isn't TOO bad...but I try to avoid the tilt thing period. Thats just me, I guess.
I'm fairly sure most use Photoshop, but I will try to find out for sure. In the end its not so much the software, so much as knowing what to do with it. Simply adjusting brightness and contrast, and using the sharpen/soften tools, is not really adjusting a photo properly. Look how much detail was lost in your photos after the editing? You don't even see your grill anymore, its so dark! Making a black look more "black" isn't always the right way to go
. So you'll ask next, "well, what do you do then?" Obviously, I cant answer this sadly
. I'll see if I can find a place to refer you to for those answers, though...
Keep in mind, I don't have the skills myself - I just learned a lot from these people who are very, very good at what they do.