Different methods to create contrast

As far as there is a “default procedure”, I’d say it starts with exposure correction, then white balance, tonemapping (to set the dynamic range), correction of colour and contrast, followed by (if needed) correction of local contrast. After that adjustments to parts of the scene.

But this is my personal way of working, and I often go back to earlier steps for small corrections.

Reasoning: exposure correction fixes the invariant point for the tonemapping with filmic/sigmoid, so has to be done before those. White balancing early is just to get “pleasing” colours asap. Tonemapping and contrast determine the global dynamic range for the output image. By now I usually have a good starting point for further work.

I avoided mentioning specific modules, as there are almost always several ways to do a particular correction. Which way you choose depends on how you approach the editing.
Example: For the tone mapping, there are at least 5 options: filmic, sigmoid, tone equaliser, tone curves, exposure correction with masks.
I didn’t include basecurve there, as that needs an input dynamic range of 0…1, so you will have to control that with one of the tonemap options (though it doesn’t make much sense to use the predefined basecurves with filmic or sigmoid).

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