Lens distortion and color fringing are two significant problems produced by lenses that you have likely encountered. Here is an excellent tutorial about how to properly use the lens correction panel in Lightroom to fix these issues.
The lens correction panel is often overlooked in Lightroom, but it is an extremely powerful tool for improving a photo. In this tutorial, Lucy Martin explains how to use these adjustments to fix the issues mentioned above. Martin begins with a photo taken with a wide-angle lens. This lens produced two problems: a distortion on the edges with curved lines that should be straight, and green fringing around certain parts of the image.
First, Martin shows us how Lightroom already has an option to automatically correct the issues for most lenses. This option is easy to find and does a decent job on its own. However, it isn’t perfect, so she moves forward to the manual tab to further fix the photograph. Here, Martin demonstrates the benefits of correcting lens distortions as she is able to improve the image by making the size of the subject and the lines along the edge of the photo accurate. She then is able to use Lightroom's custom sliders to defringe the exact colors that needed repair in the picture and completely resolve the problem of the green chromatic aberration. Finally, the vignetting tool is used to remove the natural vignette that the lens produced.
Every lens you shoot with, no matter the quality, will eventually have some type of issue that needs to be corrected. This video does a great job of explaining how to repair these problems quickly and restore a photo back to how it was meant to be captured.
Am I really strange for never using this feature unless I'm specifically taking shots that require straight lines (eg. real estate or architecture)? I always found the natural distortion of various lenses to be a rather endearing part of their character.
Yes, you really are strange ;-)
I don't thing its necessary to use it!
I shoot mostly architecture and there keeping straight lines straight is a must. But I do agree that for general photography or reportage, sometimes a lenses slight curvature and vignette create a subtle natural emphasis on the center of the frame.
I use PS more than LR and just hit Shift Ctrl R. Nails it 95% of the time; the other 5% I tweak to taste in the Custom tab.