What is photo restoration?

Over years of improper storage and poor handling, many photos fall prey to all sorts of maladies. Often they are folded, cracked, torn, burned, punctured, faded and basically mutilated. Through scanning, careful and tedious digital manipulation, and reprinting, they can usually be restored to full beauty. Depending how much of the photo's original physical content is lost, plays a large part in how well the restoration can be performed. Even though today's software makes such restoration possible, artistic ability becomes a huge factor when some areas must be re-created from basically nothing. It is here, where my years of art training gives me a distinct advantage.