[Russt]

I know most of you all know how to use this but I found this an interesting guide

http://www.naturescapes.net/122004/tg1204.htm

helped me

[noisynoodle]

Thanks for the link - very useful. Although I use USM regularly and fairly successfully it's always been on a trial and error basis. The explanation here of how each of the settings actually works should make the job a lot simpler for me, and much more "tunable".

--NN

[slejhamer]

It's a good basic overview.

Personally, I don't like using a radius greater than 0.3 when using USM.

There has been much debate over this, and the strongest supporter of never using more than 0.5 radius is Timo Autiokari at Accurate Image Manipulation. Here's his Better USM article, which gets into the finer details (pun intended) of the radius slider's impact on neighboring pixels: http://www.aim-dtp.net/aim/techniques/usm/

[jericho]

Thanks to both! Those are valuable reading.

[Russt]

Mitch thanks for the link..........before reading these articles it was a case of slide and hope. I really liked the detail in Timo Autiokari's piece, its a must read!