Shasoc
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Very interesting thread! Unfortunately there is no recipe either for Sharpening or NR neither for 7D File nor any other camera files.
As far as sharpening is concerned, it is actually a 3-step process. The first one, done in ACR (called Capture sharpening) should be aimed to add a small amount of sharpening to compensate for the loss of detail due to the nature of the digital imaging. BTW ACR applies sharpening by default to your images, but you need to aim that sharpening for each image especially with the Amount, Radius and Detail sliders. The second step of sharpening (called Creative sharpening) is done in PS and it is done selectively like to the eyes, some birds feathers, etc. The final sharpening (called Output sharpening) is based on the final image size.
The guidelines for applying these setting are the following:
With high frequency or high detail images, (like birds feathers) you generally use:
High Amount, Low Radius, High Detail, Low Masking.
For low frequency images, (skin and skies) you use:
Low Amount, High Radius, Low Detail, High Masking.
Now, to see the effects of the adjustments you need to be at 100% (there is a message in the detail panel for that). And here is the trick: to see how each control is doing you need to hold the ALT key!
So holding the ALT key while moving the Amount slider will give you a B&W version of the image that will let you see the sharpening applied.
Holding the ALT key while using the Radius slider will give you a view similar to the High Pass Filter Overlay and you can easily see how it reaches out to the different areas.
Holding the ALT key using the Detail slider gets really handy as you can see all the detail brought up as you move the slider to the right.
Finally with Masking the ALT key will apply a mask to the image and you already know that Black conceals and White reveals. The more you move the slider to the right the more Black you'll see from the smoother to the less smooth areas.
As I said the sharpening should be subtle, don't get carried away as this is the first step of the sharpening process, just to recover some softness due to the digital processing. I see too many high values posted above. As I said you can leave the default setting that ACR applies automatically, but it is better to find the right balance of the four slider according to the characteristic of your image.
Finally a brief recall of the slider commands
Amount: controls the intensity of the lightening and darkening of the edges (this is how sharpening works)
Radius controls the width of the lightening/darkening effect along edges (halos)
Detail controls how deeply ACR “digs” into the image to pull out detail.
Masking removes sharpening from smooth areas (like the sky)
I hope this helps
Socrate
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I hope all this becomes more second nature to me soon. And that most of my subjects are well lit! 
