Once I had myself wrapped around the fundamentals or photography, which took me a good decade (I'm no genius), I realized the importance of good tools. Once you advance beyond a certain stage tools do make a difference. You just can't get the edge details and sharpness form a kit lens as apposed to Zeiss glass as an example.
I recently discovered this software called Tonality. It's good stuff. I love a nice preset and often combine them together in one image. Why work hard when you can work smart. Here I combined three different presets into one using some spot blending techniques.