New to baking and this site.

Hi there,

I came across this site searching "Slap and fold doesn't work". I was following a youtube recipe, and things were going South.  I took a look around and found pictures of ugly baguettes and gorgeous baguettes and everything in between, so I think that this is where I need to be if I want to really learn. I'm also big into coffee, and this site kind of reminds me of the extremely smart and passionate community at home-barista.com. Coffee is also complex, and espresso, in particular, relies on a ton of variables working together to produce something that you want to drink. 

I just started baking bread this year, like millions of others.  First with some yeast breads then on to mostly sourdough. I can now bake a decent sourdough with nice oven spring and good flavor. Along the way I'd attempt baguettes and have only minor success. Mostly they come out pale, tough and waxy. One time I made something that was more like a hogie roll, but it was still better than my other attempts. 

 I have two baguettes proofing right now, and the oven is warming up. The dough was hard to roll out, so I think I might have over-kneaded it, I am mostly winging it right now, but I hope to learn some good lessons here, and make something close to those works of art I'm seeing here

 Edit:

The two baguettes have finished. They are sort of dumpy, malformed and squat, but they're not the worst ones I've made.