Old, faded photographs may be greatly enhanced with modern computer technology. Such improved images can be of great help to the restorer. In the case of black and white photography, the objects are recorded as varying shades of gray on the film. A light densitometer may read the different tones of gray and convert them to numerical values. These values are recorded on a magnetic tape which is coupled to a computer program. The lightmeter reads an area of 50 microns and thus divides the photograph into several millions of miniscule picture elements. From the tape the numerical light values may be reconverted to visual images. In this process either the contrast enhancement or the edge enhancement method may be used. The re-processed photographs will provide good images of important details which were not observable on the original.