Old and Scaned-in (old) Photographs

Cicero

Hi all
Thought I might start a thread on old photographs as they have specific difficulties over and above the normal ones we come accross.
Attached is a crop from a photograph I'm currently working on- the white patch at the bottom is something I've seen in a lot of old photos I am intending to restore. I can't edit this from the photo so need to work with it. I have both Paintshop Pro and Adobe photoshop.
The basic crux of the problem is that there are massive exposure differences in parts of the picture.Is there a function I should start with that can recognise such a problem as opposed to seclecting a specific area or applying an action to the entire photo?

5uspect

Use a curves adjustment layer in photoshop and add a linear gradient to the layer mask (a blank one is automatically added).

This will vary the intensity of the effect across the image.

Here's a tutorial:
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/photoshop/articles/phscs2it_adjustlayer.html

Cicero

Thanks a lot - will try that