I have been a bit busy with work commitments to process some images, finally got some time with this only opportunity on 19th May. Showing 2 image, first one is only slightly processed while the second is a bit heavily processed. Still working on the best contrast but missed this time around.
The heavily processed shot looks smooth at higher quality where these images are reduced by 50% and down in quality to 85%.
The contrast looks good. I agree the first one could be sharpened a little bit more, but the second looks a bit over done for my liking.
I find its a delicate balance between bringing out the detail and keeping a natural look to the image. Can you put the fullres image somewhere? As you say you lose a lot of quality reducing it for posting.
They are the same image, was just testing the wavelet processing to see how much I can push it. I felt the second image was a bit over processed but was just testing the waters. I usually push it to a point where the picture become a bit grainy, but this time even with over-processing it would grain.
I think I have managed to get it right but I must admit it is difficult to determin the best sharpeness to an image without going overboard. I put all three down again so it is easy to see the difference between each.
If anyone has opinions on how to make a good reference to detail on a full size image would be handy to know.
The middle one has just that extra bit of detail, I like it. The third one seems to go just that little bit too far. Hard to say why but the peaks that are catching the sunlight just look a bit too strong compared to the rest.
I have the same problem deciding when enough is enough. Sometimes I have maxed everything out to overprocess it and see where it would go and which bits stand out as horrible. Then I wind it back until those bad features are gone.
The third one seems to go just that little bit too far. Hard to say why but the peaks that are catching the sunlight just look a bit too strong compared to the rest. 
