Suggestions for photo repair

[uethello]

I've repaired maybe 50% of a photo but there's a baby with a scratch in the photo over an eye and the eyes themselves are very...poorly defined? Cleaning the black spots and what nots isn't a problem but I would like to define the eyes. Everything I try seems to end up with Cntrl-Z.

If it matters, The original pic is 6804 x 9360 and will be printed to 8 x 10s. I don't have any choice about those numbers.

I've attached a portion of it, any suggestions are appreciated. I'm most comfortable with Photofiltre, familiar with GIMP and can figure out what to do if you have photoshop suggestions.

[paul9]

Have a play with the contrast range, but that is a very poor original, and anything you do which isn't subtle will likely kill the photo.

[uethello]

Yeah, it's an early 1900s pic and the baby apparently moved his eyes. After close up work with contrast and gamma the eyes showed themselved enough for a print, thanks

[ladyGrey]

I did some quick repairs in Paint shop Pro, such as despeckling, blemish remover, brightness and contrast and sharpening, etc. Much more could be done I think, with this program to increase the sharpness?