JiK,

After I found Photoshop Elements 1.0, I bought 2.0. I also have Photoshop 6 available to me, but (usually) Elements does all that I ask of it. I've also taken a class on P6.

I didn't know of the book, but it's on order now!

The mildewed photos I'm going to scan and then see what a restorer can do. Living in high desert, humidity over 50% is unusual and any water I've used on the photos has evaporated pretty darn quick.

Earlier, we had a photo taken two weeks before Pearl Harbor which had the right half "gone to white." After scanning and enhancement, the photo of my Aunt Helen appeared as a ghostly, but recognizable, image. I sent it to my Uncle, and he said that he remembered the day very well -- it was the day he proposed to her, and my father had taken the picture. Since Aunt Helen has been dead for the last fifteen years, you can imagine....

It's for reasons like that that I want to do this project. And I took only the photos most in need of immediate help; there are at least two hundred more back in Illinois awaiting lovingcare.

My computer is a Gateway with 160 GB HDD, with 512 MB RAM. There's an HP 4570c scanner attached. My wife's computer is a Dell, 60 GB, 512 RAM, with a Canon scanner. Both scanners are at the upper end of middle and can do negatives and slides as well as photo positives. Both computers have CD burners and Elements 2.0 is on both. In addition, each machine has a ZIP drive of at least 100 MB.

Drive space/data storage we got!

Thanks for the information. It's always best to hear from someone who's been down the road already. It really is.