Highlight Sharpening

I've rediscovered sharpening as part of my workflow. After making change to crop, exposure, contrast in Lightroom I use Photoshop to finish off when necessary.

I sharpen as follows:

Convert to Lab
Duplicate Layer
Select new Layer only and Lightness Channel
Filter - Unsharp Mask

I use an Amount of 40-100 and a Radius of 2-5. Preview is a good tool allowing you immediately see the effect of changes. I never use Threshold. When done I sometimes use Layer Opacity to tone down the Sharpening. I also someone apply a Layer Mask to prevent sharpening the skin, and to apply it in varying amounts to eyes and hair.

I tend to leave the image in Lab since it's required for conversion to black and white (see earlier post).

After sharpening I often flatten the image then duplicate the Layer twice more using the Soft Light and Multiply blending modes to bring he image up. 

And I usually add an Levels Adjustments Layer.