Image normalization
Literally, this means making the images more-or-less the same.
Most of the time, that means making their intensities equal (average intensity is generally more useful than peak intensity). But it can mean many other things, as well. For example, it can mean rotating all images into a standard case. Here are some online guides and programs.
http://www.liacs.nl/MScThesis/dratner.html
http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/plugins/normalize.html
http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/plugins/normalize.html
http://www.geog.umd.edu/webspinner/ehyer/472/g472.s02.lab5.html