Here’s my quick and easy settings for sharpening photos that are destined for the Web. You can resize first in Photoshop using the ‘Save for the Web’ command, but I’ll often just export my images from Aperture where I can choose to downsize them to whatever size I want. I export to a temporary folder on the desktop (I may use these images later for other purposes) and then open them in Photoshop. Since they’re already sized with a resolution of 72 dpi, I just use the Unsharp mask for sharpening.
They need to be sharpened past the point where they would look right for printing or even viewing on your own computer. Once they’re uploaded, however, they look just about right. Here’s my starting point:
I usually only change the Amount setting. If the image is still a little soft you can move the Amount up as far as 400%. This setting will vary a little depending on if the image is a film scan or not, and if it’s been sharpened already. The Radius and Threshold I always leave at the amounts in the screenshot.
