Hi Lani, for me nosie reduction is the final step in my
workflow (well apart from resizeing for the web that is). I use neat image (trial version) as a stand alone program, I have found it to give exceptional results in most conditons. Also I am always working in tiff format and as you may know the trial version doesn't allow you to save in tiff only
jpeg so therefore for me its better to work all the way though with a 16bit tiff untill the last step where it is then converted to an 8bit
jpeg, of course if you were going to get serious you would want the full version so you could complete your
workflow in tiff format and as a bonus your exif data would remain intact.
Michael.