Photo scanning plays a very important part in the process of photo restoration. Photo restoration can be a complex process that requires lots of patience, knowledge, and care. Photo scanning provides a workable foundation for restorers to work on photos that need work. When people handle their pictures and negatives, they do many things, unintentionally, that are very harmful to them, and most do not even know they are damaging their photos.

Photo scanning can help with restoring photos that have been damaged by common wear. Besides sticking fingers all over the pictures, there is more than fingerprints that can slowly destroy your paper memories. Pictures are actually made of gelatin and tiny silver particles. This makes them susceptible to bug infestation, mold, mildew, and humidity. Unfortunately, many things that are made for use with pictures are the very things that hasten their disintegration. Many picture boards, cardboards, and most glue contain an acid that slowly eats away at the pictures. Even the chemicals that are used to develop the film from negatives are to blame for the eventual demise of these photographs. Photo scanning can give you corrected duplicates of your original, damaged, photos.

Photo scanning can correct sunlight induced fading damage. Most people are commonly aware that sunlight will ruin photographs. Even pictures that were never intentionally put in the sun can still show damage, if the sun hit the picture for even a few minutes each day.

Photo scanning can provide a smooth replacement for a sticky, corroded picture. Never use rubber cement to adhere photographs to anything. The acids in rubber cement will ruin the picture quickly, cracking the emulsion and paper backing. Rubber cement contains sulfur, which reacts with the silver that sentences pictures to certain death!

Scrapbooking and photo album hobbies have become very popular ways for people to store and share their photos. Yikes! Be careful picking out the utensils and products that you use on your photos. Do not use the photo albums that have the self adhesive pages covered by clear plastic film. The glue, again here too, is acidic. Never display your pictures in vinyl sleeves. The sleeves are made out of a certain type of plastic that will cause both color and black and white photos to fade. However, if you find pictures that are dear to you that have fallen victim to any of these damaging mishaps, photo scanning can make it all better, and can even make your pictures better than they originally were.