Thanks, Zim!
I use DXO PhotoLab4. After I rank the images and delete those I don't want to keep, I assign a standard lens correction profile plus deep prime noise reduction to all of them. I then re-rank them to decide which ones to work further on and for them I make a duplicate to work on. For those, I adjust the overall exposure if it's needed. I always use daylight temp when I take the photo, so if the color cast is off (not often) I adjust it as needed. If there's unusual things needing fixing, like horizon or perspective(in the Elite version), I do that. Then I usually up the shadows if needed, and lower the highlights if needed. Usually the mid tones stay the same unless they need adjusting, too. Then I adjust the contrast as needed to make it look good to me. Then if there is a single point of interest (like Ollie's face) I use a single local adjustment circle, with the size of the full-ish power circle around the area of interest and increase the micro-contrast and sometimes up the shadows if that area is too dark. If the eyes are too dark, I add another local adjustment circle for the dark eye(s) and up the shadows and maybe add microcontrast to them. On rare occasions I make a local adjustment mask that follows the shape of an unusual subject to work on. Note that I don't add micro contrast to the whole image as I try to have blurred backgrounds and they look better with no (or negative) micro contrast. Then I adjust the saturation a little if needed, then a final re-adjust of contrast to look good. Then I decide what kind of crop to use, which is often square (I just like those) or unconstrained to frame the image as desired. I output that as 99% jpg (saving a little space). If I'm posting to CanonRumors, I output three 90% jpgs with 4.5K, 4K, and 3.5K pixels longest side and upload the largest version that CanonRumors allows.
While I have used ClearViewPlus in the past, I find that it can muck up the image and that I can usually do a much better job by doing the process (above) myself.
It really goes pretty quickly once you get the hang of it. Hope this helps. If you have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them as I'm not an expert on using DPL and there's a lot more it can do that I haven't bothered to learn.
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