I did a restorative project years ago on my mother in laws albums.
It involved scanning at high dpi and using photo editors in layers.
Very time consuming.
I also made black and white versions of some of the old color photos. When I presented the color and b&w photos to her, she picked the b&w 8 out of 10 times saying she liked them better.
On some, I made artistic lettering cover some of the worse for wear spots and much of the process involved cropping out poor photo composition.
I didn't have photoshop, I used Paint.net and a few other free editors.
Here are some sites I saved in my favorites.
Not sure if free versions are still available or even if the websites are still online but it might get you started.
https://www.serif.com/free-graphic-design-software/
http://www.graphicregion.com/
http://www.acdsee.com/
http://www.artrage.com/index.html
http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html
http://www.artweaver.de/
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/PhotoPlus/default.asp
http://www.cursorarts.com/ca_imffw.html
http://photofiltre.free.fr/frames_en.htm
http://biphome.spray.se/baxtrom/imageenhance.htm
http://www.jansfreeware.com/jfgraphics.htm#painter
http://www.memecode.com/image.php
http://www.getpaint.net/index.html
http://www.ultimatepaint.com/
http://www.vicman.net/vcwphoto/
http://www.waltermilner.com/descartes/descartes.htm
http://www.digi-element.com/site/products.htm
http://www.varian.net/dreamview/dreamtools/terragen/index.html
http://www.ez-mixer.com/
http://www.flamingo3d.com/
http://www.fotosizer.com/
http://www.freebyte.com/graphicprograms/
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/default.asp
http://freshmeat.net/
http://www.hash.com/
http://inkscape.org/
http://www.integra.jp/en/inspirer/index.html
http://www.its-ming.com/
http://members.lycos.nl/jansfree/jfgraphics.htm
http://www.projectmessiah.com/x6/index.html
http://www.giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.com/monkeyjam/features.html
http://www.pixarra.com/
http://www.pixologic.com/store/
http://www.ronyasoft.com/products/poster-forge/
http://www.povray.org/
http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/free/
http://www.3delight.com/renderman_features.htm
http://www.rendermania.com/
http://www.rhino3d.com/
http://www.us.righthemisphere.com/
http://www.scribus.net/
http://www.joealter.com/
http://www.sidefx.com/
http://www.skencil.org/
http://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/java/smoothteddy/index.html
http://splutterfish.com/sf/WebContent/B4MaxOverview
http://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/research/squirrel/index.html
http://www.harmware.net/stile.htm
http://synfig.org/
http://www-ui.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~takeo/teddy/teddy.htm
http://www.planetside.co.uk/
http://bourbon.usc.edu/tgif/index.html
http://www.caligari.com/
http://www.ulead.com/download/download.htm
http://www.worley.com/
http://www.xaraxtreme.org/
http://www.pixologic.com/home.php
http://www.nchsoftware.com/software/graphics.html
http://www.catspitproductionsllc.com/free-graphics-software.html
https://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-digital-image-editor.htm
https://photopad.en.softonic.com/?ex=DSK-309.5
https://www.freewarefiles.com/category_3_36.html
http://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-free-photo-editor
http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/gmm/fwgraphicedit.html
I also used baby pictures and inserted birth statistics to the photos. I used different frames, made collages and even threw together some photo DVD slideshows with her favorite music.
I actually enjoyed doing it because I had to get creative to save some of her old very deteriorated photos. One photo with her mother who had recently died was her favorite but was poorly exposed. I took a photo of her family bible page with her mom's favorite passage, (there were hand-written notes on the margins written by her mom) I layered the Bible photo with her mom as a watermark and added her mom's birth and death. She cried when she looked at the finished photo and said it was the best gift she ever recieved.
I zipped up the original scans and the finished restores and put them on a data dvd. Then I made copies of that and gave a copy to each of her brother's and sister's families. Gave a copy to all my children and my x. I didn't keep a copy so I really can't show you any finsished product.
Just remember, your creativity is the only limit.