Photo Editing

Having some experience with image editing for visualization of proposed structures, I was looking for other niches to apply the skill. When my Mother asked if I could put some scanned images on CD to be distributed to the family, I offered to go a step further. Once I had the images on my hard drive, I mapped out a plan which included repairing years of damage, optimizing images for a slide show, and preserving the full size images for relatives to insert into their own software, all on one CD.
After optimizing the images to a resolution and size that would offer the best results for printing and insertion into other softwares, I began editing the "worst case" files.
CD Cover
Most required only brightness/contrast and a little sharpening, but several tested my patience...and skill! Having hundreds of tools in varying degrees of application, I decided to make repairs....while trying to retain the aged appeal.
How do I do it?