Well,
general tips are;
Don't under expose
Don't crop excessively
Use a low iso - but only if this still gives you an acceptable shutter speed for subject movement or camera shake*
* no point having a noise free, but blurred image - the noise will be much easier to fix in PP than the other things
.. which brings me to Noise Reduction software; I use
Neat Image and am pleased with the result
I find it best not to sharpen (at all) until after I have reduced noise (which I do using Neat Image as a Photoshop Plug-In Filter)
HTH,