In a sense, restoration and retouching are completely different disciplines because they have different sets of goals. In restoration, the objective is to return a damaged “original” to its former glory by scanning it, digitally repairing any damage, and then making a new print. On occasion something creative is done, like colorizing a black – and – white original. Especially when you work in an infographic company.

However, these techniques are almost always in keeping with the styles that prevailed at the time the original was created. Retouching, on the other hand, is more concerned with fine tuning an original image and making improvements to it so that it rises to a higher level of quality. Retouching is often used to fix problems, but its true power is revealed when it’s used to turn good images into great images. Even though these two disciplines have different sets of goals, the tools and techniques used to achieve those goals are the same.