Need some advice: Sharpening

[RadarContact]

I really need some advice when it comes to sharpening photos. I have looked around online and most resources say to use the Photoshop unsharpen mask but no matter what options I put in, there doesn't seem to be much change to the images.

Do my photos below have any soft spots? How do you find them? When I look hard my eyes get blurry.

http://www.jetphotos.net/img/4/2/7/2/12432_1396126272.jpg
http://www.jetphotos.net/img/3/9/0/9/92193_1396123909.jpg



Thank you.

 

[Scatterbrained]

Personally I never use the unsharp mask. I tend to use either the double high pass technique (large radius for contrast and small radius for microdetail) or the inverted surface blur technique, masking them in where needed and adjusting opacity to taste.

This just popped up on fstoppers which shows the surface blur technique. High pass should be easy enough to find on Youtube.
Sharpening With Blur ? Bring Back Insane Detail With This Quick Technique

 

[Aloicious]

your pics look fairly good as far as sharpening is concerned. not sure what you mean by 'soft spots' though.

I don't use unmask sharp either, though there is nothing wrong with using it. there are a number of different ways to sharpen, and each can do the job well when used properly. the main thing to make sure of is that you're only applying sharpening (using whatever method you prefer) at the final image size (i.e. don't sharpen before you resize the image, you pretty much always want to resize to the final image size first, THEN apply sharpening) personally sharpening is one of the last things I do to an image before I save the final product.

 

[KmH]

There is no one answer, but sharpening is best done as a 3 stage process - capture sharpening, artistic/local sharpening, and then output sharpening.

To cover the subject of image sharpening requires an entire book - Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom (2nd Edition)

 

[71M]

When I look hard my eyes get blurry. Thank you.

They look fine.

 

[ruifo]

They look sharp to me.

 

[The_Traveler]

There is no single sharpening technique that always works well across all images and entire images.
It is an art, like everything else.

 

[bribrius]

way over my head. if i think a particular images needs to be sharper i just move the sharpen slider dial up a quarter inch. i think the photos look fine too. Tend to have the opposite problem i want something less sharp, more blurry, softer, whatever. and i cant move the sharpen slider down anymore its maxed out on declining sharpness.

 

[RadarContact]

Thank you very much for all the tips and feedback. Much appreciated!

 

[manaheim]

I have found unsharp mask works reasonably well for people, but smart sharpening works better on objects. I did a smart sharpen on your first image. 100% .3 radius. Gave me some nice results.

 

[RadarContact]

I usually shoot in the Tv mode on my Canon T5i using auto ISO settings. I take pictures of airplanes and some of the colors look off. Example below.

I'm using the Canon EF 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 III USM Lens. I use a lens hood all the time. I usually shoot with a shutter speed 1/1000 -- is this too much?

Thank you.