I do the same. I use post-work only for render defects - such as artifacts or jaggy edges. I think the real reason people use post-work for big things, i.e. smoke, color enhacing, blurring, etc. is that althought they are possible in bryce, most post-work solutions look better and are easier. I never got caught up in the post work world because for my first year and a half of bryce I was to poor to get a darned graphics app like photshop. In order to encourage more experimentation with these effects in bryce, I am soon to release a tutorial/web section "how to skip the post work," and it will cover different ways to acheive certain effects in bryce that will look like the real thing. For example: lightsaber blades, fireworks, some lens flares, smoke/spot fog, ocean and wave mists, and glossy/sparkly glass effects.