Great thread.

I am just trying to figure out what is better.
D&B direct or with a seperate 50% gray layer in overlay mode. The good thing about the last is that it is non distructive and I can quickly toggle between black and white. (I just learned the shortcut for d&b btw hehehe)

Anyhow.. this is my example with D&B and NO blur used!

don't have the original uploaded to show but i used those two tools to define the shadows and highlights of this picture