The picture below is a "straight" print on Ilfochrome paper from a slide. Notice how the sky is washed out and the background mountain blends in with the sky. Also, the trees against the sky are not well defined. This is caused by too much contrast.
For the print below I made an unsharp mask. The mask reduced the brightness of the sky and mountain, leaving most of the rest of the picture as it was. Look now at the color of the sky, the separation of the mountain from the sky, and the separation of the tree branches from the sky.
Here's the recap: unmasked on top, masked on the bottom.
For this one I laid the two prints on the scanner at the same time.
