I guess if you choose a Photolab colour rendering, then adjust the tone, then colour… you are following a similarly stepwise approach to connected nodes in Resolve.
Those are the right steps, with sometimes one more early step. If the image as shot is sound, this is not necessary. But if you face underexposed or overexposed images or images with very bad white balance, before adding colour rendering, it makes sense to make basic exposure and white balance corrections.
Most of the time, I don’t have to do pre-corrections to usefully preview a Colour Rendering.
I think the lesson for me is to invest time in understanding and experimenting with the renderings that Photolab provides. Have you found any guidance or video tutorials suggesting when it might be appropriate to use particular colour renderings?
It’s strictly a matter of taste. Here’s what to do (some more examples on that thread):
To take best advantage of FilmPack, photographers should build a portfolio of three or four different images, typical of your photography style. Then go through all of the FilmPack Renderings with those images and try all of the film Renderings, building a short list of the Renderings which matter most to you. With that list in hand, build a preset for each Rendering which does the basics of lens correction, straightening and cropping.
To decide which Rendering suits your photography, the only right way to do it is to carefully review the Renderings with some of your best and most typical images. I went through this process at least a half dozen times before coming up with my default list. I rarely experiment outside of those eight Renderings any more, as I know they suit my aesthetic best. I know how each one will respond to a certain light or atmosphere or colour gamut.
Fiddling around with three hundred Rendering profile makes no sense. The hand-built personal shortlist is key.