Noise programs and masking

I've done quite a bit of reading on this,but I'm slightly confused and the best way or when to mask when using noise reduction programs.
Do you run the masks first and do you have to invert them?I've seen that for sharpening you need to use an edge mask,and when you want just noise reduction,you use a surface mask.I took a look at the TLR masking,but when I run it ,nothing really seems to happen.Basically I just want to use the masks,I think,but I'm not even sure about that.
When I started using Photoshop I thought I was just plain over my head and eventually I'm getting the hang of it,but I get that same feeling with the masking for noise.I did read the instructions with TLR,but just got more confused.
Can someone give me a few good spots to read up on the techniques,that explains step by step?

when i want to make one quick....i'll duplicate the layer...do the sharpening or noise reduction on the duplicated layer. then add a mask to that layer...then paint black to the areas i DON'T want to show up on the duplicated layer...say if there's something you don't want sharpened, you paint black there. and either use a soft brush around 25% or use a hard brush and put a small gaussian blur on the mask when you're done.