Image sharpening - ACR and PS

[Drollic]

I understand how to sharpen an image in ACR and PS, however I never know how much to sharpen by. Currently, I take images at full resolution (24mp) and typically sharpen by roughly 25 in acr using the mask feature by anything from 40-60. I then typically resize an image once in PS to 1440 in height and then use smart sharpen with lens blur removal ticked. In saying this, I sometimes think certain images look good with this last step not done at all, others with 100%?

 

[Marzipanogram]

It's usual practice to sharpen the image at the very end of PP. And the amount depends on what you're going to do with it, print or web etc.
I don't recommend sharpening it, then resizing.

When you resize, you seem to gain some perceived sharpening.
So I don't bother sharpening at all.

If you don't want to use Smart Sharpen, you could try High Pass Sharpening.
At the end of PP, press CTRL J to duplicate the layer.
On the top layer, select from the tabs at the top of the screen - Filter - Other - High Pass.
The Radius that you select, depends on the megapixel count of the image.
If you're using a 40 to 50 and above megapixel camera, you only need 0.6 to 1.2 (as starting figures, at most). A lower megapixel image might need 2.0+ for example.
After you've selected the Radius, alter the blending mode of the top layer to Overlay.
Then you'll see the sharpening effect.
You can always alter the opacity of the top layer, if the effect is too strong.
And if you want to apply the effect to certain areas, just paint on the mask to reveal or conceal.

 

[And]

If I go through ACR I leave the sharpening settings at default then when the image is in PS, once cropped I use selective sharpening with the unsharp mask on a duplicate layer. Generally I work in Canon DPP and apply sharpening (using sharpen and not unsharp mask) before exporting to PS and use no extra sharpening from then on.