Boyan,

Thanks for the feedback. I agree with everything you say here. I guess like most of life, the noise question is an issue of trade-offs. What I find interesting about myself is that sometimes I like the noise and sometimes I don't. I can't seem to decide from session to session which way to go.

Thanks also for the comments about the application of differential noise reduction. I actually use layer masks quite often to apply the noise reduction to just certain areas. This is a great technique and does solve some of the dilemma in many cases. I guess the question I still have is which looks "better" in a whole image. I didn't even get into the whole issue of noise and printing (can't really share prints on the web).

Thanks again.