I would like to be able to make better appearing characters that I can with the vanilla game. Any recommendations for that kind of mod? I would like one that is easy to remove if I don't like it. A lot of the comments when I looked on Nexus has been discouraging. People complaining about crashes even after removing the mod and so on. Should I worry?

Pretty faces is good
bellas better females is good
CBBE with the face pack is what I use for my female characters.

As for males not sure have used any yet.

Also get Racemenu.

If you havent, look for LOOT, Wyre Bash and Tes5edit. Watch a few short tutorials and yse them thwy will greaty enhance you modding pleasure.

Check the character section in http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1507281-list-graphical-mods-im-using/ for some tips. Also, if you use a mod installer such as NMM or MO for the installs/uninstalls, which is recommended anyway, you should be safe.