Before the digital era and Photoshop, photographic retouching was a completely manual and artisanal process, a technic for which Baldomero Alejos is recognized worldwide.
He followed this procedure: He carefully took a negative on the opaque side, on which he dropped a drop of matolin (organic oil), which gently expanded with a cotton ball. He placed the negative in his retoucher, a wooden structure specially designed by him. (See Figure). Then, with the tip of a pencil, he carefully proceeded to slide fine lines over the face: Point by point, line by line, he attenuated wrinkles, spots, scars and imperfections on the face and neck; trying to refine eyebrows, lips and other expressions while preserving their naturalness.
He used pencils with different degrees of hardness, which he chopped finely and refined even more with superfine sandpaper. When it was necessary to disguise, cover a background or eliminate details, he opted for two alternatives: either he scraped the negative gently with a sharp spatula or he used a special red dye.
For Baldomero Alejos, retouching was an essential part of his artistic process which is why he did not deliver his photos unretouched.