does the LR noise reduction make use of the sharpening mask

[DeanSonneborn]

Does the noise reduction make use of the LR sharpening mask? I am trying to figure out if after I make a sharpening mask with the slider does the noise reduction make any use of the mask and only do noise reduction in the off-edges dark sections? Or do I have to set this up in photoshop to actually get an edge-mask for sharpening and a surface mask for noise reduction..

[Schewe]

No...and if you get the correct settings you shouldn't need to do noise reduction later in Photoshop.

[CynthiaM]

No...and if you get the correct settings you shouldn't need to do noise reduction later in Photoshop.

Even with heavy duty noise at say 3200 shot with a crop sensor camera?  I have trouble controlling this and will often take these into Photoshop for noise reduction but if there are settings that you would recommend as a starting point for images like these, it would be most helpful if you could post these.

[Schewe]

Lightroom 3.x?

It all depends on your camera...there's no way anybody could "suggest" any settings for you...it all depends on what your captures look like.

[Philmar]

I see it is hard for people to let go of the old ways of doing things. I too was skeptical about doing NR in LR without the benefit of a edge mask.
Because we understand the value of sharpening with layer masks many see the value of doing NR with a layer mask at well. So they may not understand why the improved NR in LR3 is better than doing it with the benefit of a layer mask in PS on an image where the noise has been further intensified due to capture sharpening.
I can't pretend to know why it is better - I wouldn't know an algorithm if I tripped over one.

It's hard to let go of old heuristics and ways of doing things like NR on a layered mask. Best thing to do is search for some online tutorials on how to use LR3 noise reduction. You'll see that it beats doing it in PS. The tutorials aren't hard to find  - or you can find several tutorials for sale on this site.