Reading the discussion about cleaning out the Sfx reminded me of something (or a complaint rather) I read a long time ago about using topaz deniose and how it often ruins the original form of the artwork. While cleaning LSL, I used topaz for lower quality raws, but recently I've stopped using topaz on the high quality raws. I personally like the grainy-ness of the shading... but thats just my personal preference. Some people are against the use of topaz while others love the look of it. I guess im a bit in between, I've tried denoising on a duplicated layer and erasing denoised areas on certain gradients or patterns because it looks like a strange blur to me. Anyway, my point is.... What are u guys preference on denoising? All noise/grains gone, a little bit of noise, or no denoising at all? Do you think denoising is a must? Or some tips on denoising

i dont use denoise, i dont see a huge difference

I like the look of it sometimes. Just so smooth. I guess its easier on the eyes, especially when looking at a screen.

I use it on Ore no Imouto, just because the artist uses a billion patterns and screen tones.

It looks more appealing once I use a denoise filter on it.
And yes for some parts of images I just can't use denoise, for example the sidebars on the magazine raws look horrible once you denoise them(ore no imouto once again). So I just the Marquee tool and select the main area of the page and leave out the sidebar while denoising.

For ore no imouto, I use a the moderate JPEG preset and fool around using that as a reference point. So reducing the blur, and playing with the shadows and highlights.

Denoising isn't a MUST, I use it, see if I like it, and make my choice on whether I use it depending on how it looks.

I haven't seen the raws for LSL so I can't really say anything about that, but for some art styles it just doesn't work out.
/end noobish opinion.

i was going to use it for ChibiDevi! when i first cleaned it but i saw that just using curves and levels were just fine =p

I don't use it but I find that sometimes it easier and quicker
It mainly depends on the raw
if it's pretty bad I use it, if not, I don't use it

Ohhh I see... thanks for sharing, guys! Just wanted to make sure I wasn't committing a cleaning crime or something haha ... and I was curious about how many people like or dislike the look of it.