Hi both Craig and Denise.
I do shoot RAW rather than in camera JPEG's, but most people fail to sharpen their images for Web use. I believe you should also sharpen differently for print use, but I don't print out so do not know.
If you use in camera JPEG's you can adjust the amount of sharpening by going into the menu on many cameras. It is usually set for general photography, but you can increase it both in camera or in post processing later. However see your camera manual how to do it and also note the original camera settings in case you need to return them. Generally there is more sharpening applied out of the box on entry level cameras than prosumer and professional ones since they presume people who buy these will either sharpen in post processing or be able to adjust in camera sharpening.
I have read of people who had an entry level camera being disappointed when stepping up to a more professional one since the pictures did not look as good to them as with the entry level one, merely because on the lower end ones the makers had pre-set image sharpening and colour to a greater degree. The functions they expected those buying higher level ones to be able to tweak themselves by going into the menu's.
http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototip ... -cons.html
I am just using Elements or Photoshop Elements as it's often called. The functions in it I use have been there since the early versions so I did not really need to upgrade. For most amateurs Photoshop is overkill and it has now gone on the Cloud as a subscription based service, whereas Elements is intended for amateurs and can be purchased outright, therefore reside on your computer. Image sharpening is the same as in Photoshop and even the freebie image manipulating software on the web work similarly. I sharpen as the last function after resizing and manipulating exposure etc.
https://photography.tutsplus.com/tutori ... ...%20More
Just looked to see my settings for sharpening, though these may need altering to suit an image.
Unsharp Mask. (these were the settings a close up photographer gave me as a starting point years ago when I first went digital)
Amount 80%
Radius 2.0 pixels
Threshold 5
If using Adjust Sharpness instead (I then see what looks best Unsharp Mask or Adjust Sharpness since you can just cancel until you get which looks best)
Preset Custom
Amount 100%
Radius 1.0 px
Remove Gaussian Blur.
As said you may need to alter them to suit the image. Beware of over sharpening as it can make the image look "plasticky" and if you go too far you can get what are often called "sharpening haloes", or more correctly "over sharpening haloes", which are white or coloured lines around the image. If you are getting these back off the sharpening. With most processing software until you save the image you can go to Edit and remove what you have just done and start again. Always work on a copy of your image or never save the alterations to the original since if you muck things up you can then start again.
https://www.dpchallenge.com/tutorial.php?TUTORIAL_ID=80
As I shoot Raw I use Adobe's Camera Raw Converter. However Adobe has the dubious business practice of encrypting the new Camera RAW version for the latest cameras to only work with its latest version of Elements therefore you need to buy the new version of Elements to use it if you do a camera upgrade. However there are other Raw Converters on the Web for free I believe which you can convert RAW images in to a form older Elements can then process.
I should also have added I do usually shoot on a tripod for plants rather than hand held so I can use smaller apertures and the lowest ISO setting for better quality images to start with.