I am in the process of learning post-processing, using darktable. I have a couple of pictures shot in RAW with lots of contrast in them (for instance, dark passages with bright sky).

Now, in getting those pictures into the nicest possible final jpeg image I am trying to understand the difference in approach between those methods:

• Global tone mapping
• Tone curve

Unfortunately, it seems technical information on tone mapping operators is hard to find. I only could find specifics for Reinhard and I am a bit surprised, in that the formula looks like something that can be done with a tone curve.

Is it so? If it is, what is the difference between global tone mapping and tone curve, and if not, what am I missing?