Photo restoration

I have been slowly learning and working with Photoshop for a few years now, though its mostly been for personal enjoyment as a photographer in Second Life.  But now that I have decided to take Genealogy research to the professional level, I find myself also wanting to use my experiences with digital imaging to retouch and restore some of the photographs I have been scanning over the past few months. I hope to offer scanning and retouching old photos as a service in the future, but I'm still "practicing" -- learning how to use the techniques I already know for a different purpose.

About a month and a half ago I came across a photo that I absolutely loved of my mother and her siblings, but it had been stained and bent, and had faded a fair amount.

Original scanned photo

I finally got around to editing the photo the other day and I was very pleased (okay, to be honest, I was giddy with excitement) at how it turned out. I still need more practice, especially with other types damage and color casts - but for now, I am very happy with where I am.

After cleaning it up...