A good post-processing tip is to apply two passes of Unsharp Mask. The first pass adds a general "punch", the second sharpens the fine details. A good startin

A good post-processing tip is to apply two passes of Unsharp Mask. The first pass adds a general "punch", the second sharpens the fine details. A good starting point for unsharp mask: 1st pass: Amount 10; Radius 30; Threshold: 0 2nd pass: Amount 100; Radius 0.3; Threshold: 0 Adjust amount based on your judgement. Don't over-sharpen. Sharpening should be the last step after resizing. Obviously always sharpen with the image at 100% zoom. Don't let your DSLR sharpen the image. Shoot in RAW, but resist sharpening at your RAW tweaking stage - just do exposure tweaks at that point, then bring into Photoshop for sharpening and resizing. Also play with polarizing filters on your lens; ND filters so you can open up aperture to exploit the sweet spot of your lens; reduce your exposure compensation in daylight (my DSLR is always set two stops under); use a lens hood; avoid too much cropping, instead get the framing and focal length right when shooting.