I usually use Paint Shop Pro 6 to manage my digital manipulations.  All I typically do is...

• Resize 

• Crop

• Rotate

• Minor adjustments to brightness & contrast

• Sometimes colorize (e.g. the pseudo-sepia toning)

In other words, just basic image editing.

My digital camera came with software:  PhotoStudio 5 from ArcSoft, and this application comes with some ability to enhance images & to apply different effects.  If you read the text of the pages from Jessica's First Visit, you'll know that my scans didn't do the prints justice.  So, I thought I'd play with the enhancements & effects features of my image editing software to see what it can do:

ArcSoft's PhotoStudio 5

(Auto-Enhance; Intensity 75%)

(Oil Painting; Intensity 2)

(Watercolor; Size 3)

(Charcoal; Pressure 1)

(Pastel; Thickness 1)

(Impressionistic; Thickness 7)

(Cross Hatch; Stroke 7)

(Splash; Intensity 30)

(Mosaic; Thickness 10)

(Midnight Lighting)

(Old Photo with Defocus)

Paint Shop Pro 6

(Black Pencil)

(Antique Mosaic)

(Sculpture)

(Texture)

(Tiles)

(Dilate)

Assessment:  I have to admit that I like the first effect (Auto Enhance) from PhotoStudio -- it brought out some of the background detail that was lost in the original scan while lightening the skin tones slightly -- overall, the effect is pleasing.

What Do You Think?
I only have one monitor & one browser -- I can't check the effects of my scans & image editing in a variety of settings.  Just because an image looks good on my PC, that doesn't mean it looks good for all visitors. 

All the other images are fun & interesting, but not my style (although some of the subtle coloring variations are good).  I doubt that I'd ever develop the kind of hand-eye coordination serious art requires -- that's why photography is such a good match for me -- I don't have to be coordinated.  Anyway, don't expect to find heavily manipulated images here.