@james Your comment is exactly what I’m looking for in these PlayRaw threads that goes into detail about why/how you use each tool and what they achieve!
Here is my second attempt in RT that goes for a more neutral B&W look:
There are still some noise in the background but to my eyes the noise looks fairly non distracting already, so I will leave them there in favor of not erasing too many details from the fur. This is probably one of the image that I hope RT supports masked editing so I can apply stronger denoise on the background, as well as bring down the highlight from the tag without affecting the white part of the harness.
Here is another photo of “Volno”, aka the most majestic dog in our park:
(Sony a6000, Sony E 24mm f/1.8 ZA, ISO 6400)