Chip Shot: For years, Polaroid Corp. marketed...

Chip Shot: For years, Polaroid Corp. marketed its instant cameras on a message of “point-and-shoot” simplicity. But now that photography has entered the digital age, even amateurs are going beyond that by using their PCs to do things like scanning, downloading and printing.

So 50 years after introducing its first instant camera, Polaroid is entering the software business. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company is set to unveil today a program that anyone can use to improve digitally recorded pictures.

Called “Before & After,” the software fixes lighting problems, sharpens blurry images and makes other improvements to pictures stored on a computer. Users can compare the before-and-after images in side-by-side renderings on their monitors.

The product, which sells for about $30 and is designed for PCs running Windows 95, is part of Polaroid’s response to the increasing popularity of digital photography, said Dan Richards, director of software and advanced business development for the company.