Your old family photos probably have dust and scratches on them, or they may have yellowed from age. In other photos in your family album, the shadows may have become shallow, making the image look faded and flat. In your ancestors' day, the only way to fix battered pictures was to take them to an expensive photo retoucher. With today's computer technology and a little practice, however, even amateurs can scan and repair old family photos, printing out new copies that look as good as the day the pictures were snapped.

Most people think of programs such as Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, both created by Adobe www.adobe.com, as tools for working with color images. But these powerful programs can come to the rescue of your old black-and-white photos, too. Their tools let you sharpen a scanned image, open up shadows, "clone" areas, "visually repair" torn or damaged photos, blur and even colorize black-and-white pictures. Best of all, you can experiment without risking further damage to your precious originals.

You'll need a scanner to get a digital version of your damaged photo into your computer (see the April 2002 Family Tree Magazine for a guide to affordable scanners). You'll need a computer, of course—both Photoshop and its inexpensive sibling Photoshop Elements work on Macs as well as PCs. And you'll need a printer to share your retouched image with the rest of the family. Once you're equipped, try the photo-editing tricks in the June 2003 Family Tree Magazine.