Photos don't always age gracefully. Your old black-and-white portraits may be dotted with dust and scratches. The images might have yellowed or faded. In your ancestors' day, the only way to fix bartered pictures was to take them to an expensive photo retoucher. With today's computer technology and a little practice, however, even amateurs can scan, repair and enhance old family photos, then print 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, "clone" areas, visually repair torn or damaged photos, blur defects and even colorize black-and-white pictures. Best of all, you can experiment without risking further damage to your precious originals.