A few weeks ago you may remember I wrote this
quickie on high pass sharpening and it got me thinking if there were any other ways of sharpening.
I started tinkering with USM again after reading one of Scott Kelby's books and as such I have now written some actions to use on various types of pictures, by writing the actions it saves a lot of time when processing shots and it makes it easier and less time consuming when experimenting.
For the following images go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp mask and apply the following settings:
Portraits
Amount 75%
Radius 2
Threshold 3
Moderate sharpening (good for buildings)
A 225%
R 0.5%
T 0
Maximum sharpening (good for images with well defined edges
A 65%
R 4
T 3
All purpose
A 85%
R1
T4
Web sharpening (do this before resizing 
)
A 400%
R0.3
T0
These settings are not set in stone and it will pay to experiment but having these to hand as actions will significantly increase your workflow speed.
I also came across another method called Luminosity Sharpening, so called because it only applied to the luminosity of the image (the details areas) and not the colour.
This steps for Luminosity Sharpening are:
Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp mask - Amount 120%, Radius 1.0, Threshold 3, click OK.
Go to Edit > Fade Unsharp Mask and from the Mode drop down menu choose Luminosity.
This is a comparison image I was working earlier in Lightroom and it gave me the perfect opportunity to see a before and after shot using this method (the 'after' shot is on the left) and I must say I really like it, it's early days but I think it would be great for weddings, portraits etc.
