It was me, I PM’ed @wildroverandy; I didn’t mean to chase you away… 
Well, you haven’t really, but with all the frustration of trying to work out my editing workflow, it became the last straw.
I may still revisit this at another time.
Cheers.
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Hello again,
OK, I’m having another go now, and seem to have some improvement.
After reading a few more articles, I decided to uninstall and reinstall, and then try cutting back on everything I was doing and start afresh.
Now I’ve got a more basic set of starting tools, Lens Correction, Colour Balance and Filmic RGB as my starting set.
I found that the Colour balance preset for ‘generic film’, with a little saturation boost, works well for me, so I included that into my preset.
I then just start using Filmic RGB, and adjust only as needed to ‘align’ the histogram. Then I may follow up using the Tone Equaliser, if I think it’s needed - I’m getting that quite quickly using the pointer tool to adjust specific regions. I’ll maybe adjust just the Exposure and Back Point first if needed.
I’m rarely finding any need to use sharpen (using the Contrast Equaliser preset), although that does depend on the lens I used.
Now I’m getting very natural and neutral looking images, and getting a much better starting point.
So, thank you again to everyone that replied previously, I have been inspired to continue.
However, I’m still looking for a faster workflow just so I can migrate 60,000 images from Lightroom before my subscription renewal comes up in the summer.
I’m also needing to consider cloud syncing options too. I like the Adobe CC system, but multi-device editing isn’t particularly necessary, just being able to view/print from other devices is all that’s required. Of course I understand I’ll have to export from darktable to do anything at all - perhaps just using Apple Photos would do for that (as I already have a 200GB iCloud account anyway). Any other suggestions for that would be appreciated (have to be cost conscious though, it’s only family sharing, not pro-client stuff).
Cheers.
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There are many online file share or synching solutions. I’m using nextcloud, which also does calendars, to dos, and lots of other stuff. There is also syncthing, which is only file syncing. Then there are all the web gallery systems
However, I’m still looking for a faster workflow just so I can migrate 60,000 images from Lightroom before my subscription renewal comes up in the summer.
Why would need to hurry there? Of course you would need to get images back into your possession that are only stored at Adobe. But you should be able to use the database and also export old edits out of Lightroom even if your subscription has ended. imho only new edits and database changes will no longer be possible … …
Cloud Device might also then be e.g. an own synology NAS 
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Of course I can keep Lightroom on my system, and the existing edits and arrangement I have can still be used.
However, I also don’t entirely trust Adobe not to change this at any time (I have known them to do such things historically). Of course I know I can export everything.
But, for sanity, I’d prefer to migrate fully to darktable (or whatever solution I end up choosing), just so I am not having to work with multiple catalogues and versions of images in different places.
Because all my images are completely personal, I am happy to re-edit and have ‘different’ edits - hopefully ‘better’ edits.
Cheers.
OK, thanks, this is something I’ll think about going forward, but those are some options to have a look at.
Cheers
Told yaaa ! 
Joke aside, it’s nice too see, one month after the release, that frustration and incomprehension are slowly replaced by satisfaction, and users start to see the benefits rather than the investment. I hope it will encourage other to persevere.
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Ugh, I faced a similar issue moving from LR to dt. In the end I decided re-editing all my photos just wasn’t going to happen. Way too much time needed when I could be out shooting. I decided that since I had a very wide variety of types of photos (family, trip, artistic photos et.c), I would only keep no more than 20% of my raw files. My strategy was to ensure I had exported all my photos to full resolution jpgs, then toss most raws because life is just too short to be re-editing everything and my candid, travel shots etc. were fine in jpg. For the raw files I kept, I use star ratings in dt to rank my older raw files by importance to re-edit. This way I was only working on new edits to my most important raw files. Happy to report my edits in dt are more pleasing than what I had done in LR.
Glad the workflow is coming along. I too felt I was spending too much time in the beginning and getting sub-par results. But as I stuck with it, the time/frustration gave way to efficiency/satisfaction.
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I think the key is not so much learning which modules to use, it more about learning how few of them you need to use, and which to exclude initially.
It’s all too easy to get the ‘kid in a sweetshop’’ syndrome, and want to turn everything on.
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Thanks Brian.
Yes, I am considering the export everything as JPEG, although I keep a dedicated HDD as a full archive for all my images (before culling), regardless of source and filetype, so I can always recover any original image if needed.
I guess I’m a typical old fashioned hoarder kind of guy (you know, the one with a shed full of tools and bits that might ‘come in handy one day’) 
, so I do find it hard to delete stuff like that.
I know there’s no easy answer to this, or at least no easy way to get to where I really want, it’s just going to be tedious and methodical work.
Cheers.
Don’t assume that once you cancel your Adobe subscription that you’ll be able to view your old photos. JChristina on YouTube cancelled his subscription, and immediately after cancelling he launched Adobe Lightroom Classic to see what would happen, and we got a dialog box saying “This is the last time you will be able to launch Adobe Lightroom Classic CC”. This seems to contradict the info on their site that suggests you’ll at least be about to use the “lighttable”, but no access to Develop module. Maybe this is a new policy and they didn’t update their docs? Or maybe it was an idea they were playing with, and have backed down since?
Either way, I don’t want to be held hostage to Adobe’s whims, so I exported all my pics to JPG, made sure I am happy that I can get the results I want with darktable, then I cancelled my subscription and deleted Lightroom. If ever I need a better quality copy of one of previous photos, I’ll just go into darktable and re-edit it.
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I heard that some people were having problems not being able to open LR Classic after cancelling subscription, others saying that wasn’t the case. I cancelled back in September and mine keeps launching but without any access to Develop mode. I still use the Library mode for some work but need to quit that soon.
@wildroverandy Check this edit out…using only one module…I agree with Boris…I have as of late made huge use of the color balance module …it covers, levels, WB, contrast and saturation…its the key to get back the saturation if you lose a bit from filmic…also I noted earlier in one of your screen shots that you had not dialed up the extreme luminance in filmic…that can also help with the sky…but check this edit out…one module… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsg9UrnLgiQ
This can be very frustrating
I believe the complexity of darktable can be frustrating and confusing. That’s why I like this quote:
You can perform at least 80% of your processing with just 4 modules :
- exposure
- white balance
- color balance
- filmic (rgb)
from this link:
It lets me focus just on a few modules without trying constantly something new. (And it’s generally a very good article).
@st.raw…I can beat that how about one module… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsg9UrnLgiQ&t=199s
Very good point I now use way less modules and can really target things on occasion with rarely used modules if need be…but it took and and investment to learn the tools for sure…
Yes Matt, that was exactly the reason for my comments.
They have promised many things over the last few years, and then changed their T&Cs anyway, or even their own entire sales structure.
It’s not the cost, or the capability of Lightroom that I want to change, to be honest the Photography Plan is pretty good value. It’s the trust issue I have, and want to eliminate that element.
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That’s quite handy.
Although at this time I’m pretty happy with what I’m getting with just the Filmic RGB and Colour Balance modules, and some Contrast Equaliser as needed.
Small steps eh.
Just to add my findings.
After again booting Win10 with now deactivated licence, I am still able to start Lightroom Classic.
It also comes up with my DB files in there.
Export of the old edits is possible, even in different pixelsizes. Even "AdHoc"Development seems to be possible. Of course development module is gone, but database and export of old edits seems still to be possible. And yes, I also might take a look to export edits in full size JPGs before anything really stops working …