Relatedly: tried out Darktable today (for editing digital photos shot in raw mode).

Seems pretty good! Flexible, snappy, and stable so far. But goodness there are a lot of ways to do very similar things:

What's the difference between "exposure correction" and adjusting brightness? How does that compare to tone mapping, or "global tonemap"? Where does the "base curve" come from? Which things should I use in combination, and when should I just pick one because they're alternative approaches to the same task?

I've got some reading to do.

https://www.darktable.org/