well often I think it depends on what I'm shooting, if it's a garden or such, the vibrance of the flowers really helps, and such, it can be tricky finding a balance.
As for sharpness, that itself can be tricky, not enough and the image might be too blurry, and too much it isn't any good, though I do love how the right image with high sharpness has a almost paintingisc texture to it. Like this one, kind of reminds me of a gold leaf painting,
wolfwings1.deviantart.com/art/... , or this one the combination of sharpness, high digital zoom, large distance + a ton of heat haze creates a sort of sureal painting look.
wolfwings1.deviantart.com/art/...