Correcting the Color in Victorian Images Using PSP 9
How do we get from the first image to the second one?
Disclaimer: Each image will need it's own repair work steps
but I will give you the steps I used on this one.
That should give you some ideas to work with on others.
If there are people in the picture the most important thing is to correct the flesh tones.
1. Right click on the first image above. Save it to your hard drive. Open it in PSP Version 9. Make a copy and close the original.
2. Go to Adjust, Automatic Saturation Enhancement. Use the settings below.
3. Go to Edit, Repeat Automatic Saturation Enhancement.
4. Go to Adjust, Brightness and Contrast, Gamma Correction.
Remove the checkmark from Link, set as below and click OK.
5. Go to Adjust, Brightness and Contrast, Gamma Correction again.
Click on the reset arrow 
up at the top.
Set as below and click OK.
At this point it should look like this. It has pretty good color but still has too much contrast and too much noise.
6. To fix the contrast go to Adjust, Brightness and Contrast, Brightness/Contrast and set as below.
7. To reduce the noise go to Adjust, Photo Fix, Digital Photo Noise Reduction.
Accept the defaults and click OK. (I would not use the sharpen feature here.)
8. To sharpen the image a bit go to Adjust, Sharpness, Unsharp Mask and use the settings below.
It's close to being finished except for a few tiny problem areas marked below.
Just use your clone brush and your smudge brush to clean them up and it's finished. (See image at top of page.)
Here's another example done basically the same way.
Just remember you'll have to tailor your changes to fit the image you're working on.
©Griffin Images - 2005