Steve the two different USM's reflect different techniques. I learned both of them from "Photoshop LAB Color" by Dan Margulis and adapted them to my CNX2 methods.

Normal sharpening will emphasize edges and will use low radius and high amounts or intensity. The other technique called hiraloam or high radius and low amount/intensity gives shape.It is very useful for things that don't have sharp edges like water and also when used in combination with normal sharpening will really work on giving dimension to faces. And yes using hiraloam sharpening will allow you to sharpen noisy images often associated with higher ISO's where normal sharpening would just emphasize that noise.

Your photo looks great. I highly recommend Dan Margulis' books as they give you great insight as to how things work in Photoshop which is also applicable to many things in CNX2. BTW thanks for the complement.

Bob Baldassano
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