Quote Originally Posted by Damo77 View Post
To understand how sharpening works, begin with Unsharp Mask. It doesn't matter if that doesn't end up being your method of choice, the principles are vital.

Understanding Unsharp Mask
whilst I agree with your comment, it feels like a info-commercial when you have to jump to another site.

Quote Originally Posted by Geoff79 View Post
The reason I'm sharpening is purely for my own enjoyment. As you say, just general tweaking to get a better / sharper result when I print my pics, or even just for posting on this forum.

As for software, I have a Canon 40D.
Remember there are different techniques for different situations

Here's an example I often use, this is for progressive sharpening for web presentation - essentially program independent (however i use CNX2)

Step 1; resample image at a small size/resolution, typically 50% of the original.

Step 2: Sharpen using unsharp mask with the following values:
Radius 3
Intensity 15%

Step 3: Fit photo, basically to the final size 800x800 for typical web presentation.

Step 4: Sharpen using unsharp mask with the following values:
Radius 3
Intensity 25%

This basically takes care of the fine grain sharpening, now you can also add in another unsharp mask using a larger radius if the image is slightly (and only slightly) OOF, I find typically radius of 75-80 at no more than 7-10% can salvage well.

(note: the following image is pretty darn sharp anyway, however this is an example of progressive sharpening for the web)

below are the two images, the first is a nef file that was made to fit 775x800 then saved as jpeg at 84% quality, the second is the same nef with the steps outline above applied.

no sharp


progressive sharp


and a zoomed in version of the two to compare




and just for reference, crop from the nef file, no sharpening, either in camera or PP (other than what happens when converting to jpeg)




hth