more detail, more something...here's the same scene in preview and rendered in superbly. it's just not sharp e

nuff for my needs. what can I do to improve?

We need to see a screenshot of your render settings

ok I went back and started changing the resolution for renders and then realized the blonde was not in focus, I clicked on her face and then rendered as high as I could without going to black, and then ...

??

drawn

The Render Dimensions panel will not sharpen your image.  You need to increase your pixel sampling under the Render Settings panel and this depends on whether you are using CPU or GPU rendering (see image below).  The screen image you provided appears to have Depth of Field applied.  Is this correct?

I agree that the dimensions won't help the blurriness. You need more pixel samples. Showing your render settings would help us help you tweak them

changed settings to match your's, set distance at 17 (inches?) removed depth of field. it seems to be using GPU, is that best?

To get rid of the graininess, select a higher "Load Preset" from the button below in the Render Settings window.  Keep in mind, higher pixel sampling will take longer to render.  GPU means that the rendering is working off of your graphics card.  

If you did not reset the units of measure in the General Preferences, you might be using Poser Units for distance.  ATM, render without depth of field until you become more familiar with rendering.

Depth of field can be tricky to set right. I agree that you might want to wait on that.

The settings you use are good for test renders to ensure lights and textures look good. Higher settings are good for final renders.