Unsharp Mask Tutorial

It gives you a good feeling when you shoot a photograph and the colors come out exactly the way you wanted them to, without post-editing.  Getting your camera to 'see' the light as you see it, isn't always easy.  I got lucky in my experimentation with this photo.  Shooting with a tripod was a 'must' for this photo because my shutter speed was so slow.  (4) seconds.    

Nikon D5000;  f/22;  A-Mode;  Shutter 4 sec;  ISO 1250;  200mm  zoom;  Tripod;  No flash;  Un-edited

I was really happy with the way this photo turned out.  The only thing I decided to do was sharpen the photo just slightly.  This is how I do it with most photos:

Open your image in PS.  (This is virtually the same across the last several CS versions.)  Go to, Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask.  A pop-up window displays.  The settings I chose for this particular photo are in the screenshot.  These may change depending on the photo.  Feel free adjust accordingly.  Zoom in on the photo so you get a clear idea of what the changes you made look like.  (I often check and un-check the preview box to see the difference in the actual photo.)  

Click 'ok'.  And this is what I ended up with:

It's not a HUGE difference.  But noticeable particularly around the highlights of the monkey and leaves.

I've experimented a lot with Photoshop's sharpen filters.  And this one seems to yield the best results.  I don't have an action set for this and I prefer it that way because these settings change frequently depending on the subject matter of your photo.