No 3. How I Sharpen My Photographs
Whether you scan, shoot, or capture, the process of digitizing images introduces softness, and to get great-looking results, you'll need to sharpen the great majority of digital images.
THIS IS HOW I SHARPEN MY PHOTOGRAPHS
1. Duplicate the background layer and select this layer.
2. Choose Filter > Other > High Pass. Increase the pixel radius until you achieve the correct amount of sharpening. A pixel radius of 1.0 if printing to Gloss paper and 3.0 if printing to Matte paper would be about normal.
3. In the Layers palette choose overlay from the blend modes menu.
4. To adjust the level of sharpening later you can either adjust the opacity of the High Pass layer or set the blend mode of the 'High Pass' layer to 'Soft Light' or 'Hard Light' to increase or decrease the level of sharpening. Or the layer can be made into a smart layer, which enables you to alter the original high pass settings.
5. Do not over sharpen as this will create halos.
I disable sharpening in the RAW converter to reduce image degradation.
Sharpening is always my last operation.