I'm new, as of today. I've browsed around for general guidelines and found some technical guidelines about resolution, colorspace, size, etc.
My question is about the approach to take when doing restoration of certain portions of a damaged photo. In looking through some of the photos here it seems in almost all cases the subjects of the photo (snapshots of kids and family, school portraits, weddings, etc.) are the people. Quite often, the backgrounds seem inconsequential to the most important part of the lost" memories (the people). Now if it's a Christmas tree or the family dining table or cozy fireplace, that's one thing, but if it is a chain link fence, maybe not so much.
Likewise, in a studio portrait setting, such as a school photo, there's usually a non-descript background, typically cloudy shadows or textures. While it would be somewhat arbitrary, assuming the restorer could determine a proper color balance for the person/their clothing, and it turned out that a "better" color (due to the person's skin tone or clothing color, or whatever) for such a background could be found, should it be tweaked or left alone? Thinking of all the portraits I've ever been part of or seen, I can't remember the background color on a single one of them.
I'm not talking about Photoshopping out an 'ex' or removing (or adding) elements.
What is the "approved" approach to take on issues like these?