[David L]

Mike.. There's loads of guidance out there on the web.. canon have published a good guide recently and robgalbriath.com is a good starting point (browse the forums)..

You need to understand why sharpening is required though.. The image sensor has an anti alias filter in front of it that "defocuses" the image.. Why? Well, without that, you get unacceptable jagglies (where straight diagonals appear jagged)..

The more pro your camera, the more pronounced the anti aliasing. They work on the principal that pros understand this, are not "put off" by seeing softness in the image, require the minimum jagglies possible and will deal with the softness by post processing. The point and shoot brigade need something more immediate and so there is less anti alias in those cameras..

Right, so it's accepted why you need to sharpen.. How.. Ooh, well, there's a million and one ways.. I suggest you search the web and have three or four alternatives in your arsenal..

1. unsharp mask.. search for an online tutorial and learn what it actually does to learn how to use it (it works on increasing contrast and the optical effect it has)..

2. sharpening in layers and blending for a more subtle effect..

3. using plug-ins like focal blade and/or nic sharpener and/or dFine..

Remeber, horses for courses, don't over sharpen, and sharpen differently for print that you do for VDU..

Finally, no ammount of sharpening will compensate for something that is out of focus or blurred.. You should be able to tell is anything is worth bothering with in the first place without sharpening..

Regards