>>3956851OK.
So with Lightroom, it's the simplest. You have a bunch of modules in a row that can be expanded or collapsed. Following it down, you can figure out the process of editing an image. If you aren't sure what a tool does, you can probably figure it out, or find tons of resources explaining it. But it really is very simple.
Now Capture One. Capture One is a bit more complicated because we have multiple columns, all organized by theme (lens controls, color controls, exposure controls, etc). You can also customize this to your heart's content, but I just use the default layout. Here, there are more tools to learn, and I did watch a few videos to figure out how to use some of these tools to their fullest extent. You also have some overlap in what the tools do. However, the tools overall are pretty clear on what they do once you get the hang of things, and the order of the columns and modules makes a rough order that you can follow when editing an image.
Now darktable. You have a ton of modules and many different display modes, and it isn't clear, even after reading
pixls.us documentation (which has a strong tendency to slip into masturbatory jargon), which you should choose. all, default, beginner, scene-referred, display-referred? Choose default and you've got way too many modules. Choose beginner and you have too few, you're missing functionality. Choose display-referred and you get somewhere but you have the devs and people writing
pixls.us docs saying that scene-referred is what you should use because it's better. Choose scene-referred and you've got to deal with filmic rgb which is incomplete, always undergoing tweaks, and isn't at all clear in what it does, even after watching videos on the subject. Another issue is all the tutorial videos use absolutely trash images to demonstrate. Show me someone making bad edits to a bad image and it doesn't help me understand anything, because that's not what I want to do.
