How to Succeed with your SIX-20 Brownie – Kodak London Instruction Booklet

About this edition

This text edition transcribes the 27-page source copy of How to Succeed with your SIX-20 “Brownie”, published by Kodak Ltd., Kingsway, London. No publication date is identified. Its instructions describe the box camera with Portraits, Groups and Landscapes settings, three stops and an approximately 1/25-second snapshot shutter. This is a different camera from the SIX-20 Folding Brownie.

Printed text, historical product claims and British spelling are retained. Page references have been supplemented with web links. Photographs and illustrations are omitted; the opening setting diagrams are presented as a text table. Historical prices, products and processing arrangements describe the booklet’s own period.

Credit: Kodak Ltd., London. Source copy: The Brownie Camera Page.

How to Succeed with your SIX-20 “Brownie”

Kodak Ltd., Kingsway, W.C.2.

How to set your SIX-20 “Brownie”

The opening diagrams show the following settings. The shutter is set to I for snapshots and B for time exposures. The sunny-day examples use the “Bright” stop and the cloudy-day examples the “Clear” stop; see when to alter the setting.

For an indoor time exposure, always place the camera on a firm support.

The first thing to do

You can get good pictures from the start – eight out of eight on your first spool – if you make real friends with your camera at once.

So don’t be like so many new camera owners who waste their first roll by making silly little mistakes.

Before you load up your first spool glance through at least the first half of this book and “work” all the levers, etc., on the camera so as to get used to them.

So, to begin with, please turn to the opening setting guide, which shows the movements of your camera, and practise the movements once or twice without any film in the camera. It will only take two minutes, after which please turn forward again and go on reading.

Have you done that? Good! Now that you know the movements of your camera, you are ready to load up with film.

What about film?

Kodak Regular Film is made by the same firm that made your “Brownie” – the firm that started snapshot photography.

It is made in different sizes to fit different cameras: the size you need is No. 620 (the same number as your “Brownie”). The size is shown on a coloured label inside your camera.

“Verichrome” Film. When you have taken a few ordinary portraits, groups and views you will want to go on to something even better. So we advise you to try “Verichrome” Film (Kodak-made, too, of course). Not because it costs 2d. more per spool (it is amply worth it) but because it really does give you better pictures – with added sparkle and life. It is better for all subjects and lights, but you will find it particularly useful when the light is not so good as it might be – on dull days, in the rain, dusk. “Verichrome,” in effect, helps your “Brownie” to “see” more clearly.

You need V620 “Verichrome” Film for your “Brownie.” You can always recognise “Verichrome” because of the distinguishing black and red chequered band that surrounds the familiar Kodak yellow carton.

So don’t forget the rule – “Verichrome” for better, brighter, clearer snapshots.

Kodak Super Sensitive Panchromatic Film

When you have had some practice at using Kodak or “Verichrome” Film (“Verichrome” for preference) you will be ready to use Kodak Super Sensitive Panchromatic Film. This is the film that professional cinematographers and Hollywood use, because it is so extraordinarily fast and gives pictures of such wonderful quality. You’ve seen them at the cinema yourself, and you know how clear and sparkling they are. With Super Sensitive Film you can even take good snaps at night by your one or more “Photoflood” lamps. But like all high-grade materials it requires skilled handling at every stage – taking, developing, printing – so before going on to Super Sensitive, practise with the less advanced films first.

How to load

Any Kodak dealer will supply you with the proper film for your camera. He will also load it for you if you like, but learn to load it for yourself as soon as possible.

Let’s suppose you have got your film and are sure it is the right size. Now follow these pictures:

Open the camera by pressing down on the metal catch just by the carrying handle and drawing the two halves apart as far as they will come. They are joined by two hinged arms.

Put the spool in the top spool chamber, so that the word “TOP” on the red paper comes on the same side as the winding key.

Break the gummed tape that goes round the spool and draw the red paper over the top roller and between the two hinged arms.

Now turn the camera over; draw the red paper over the other roller and thread the tapered end into the longer slot in the empty spool.

Turn the winding key once or twice, to make sure that the paper has been caught securely in the empty spool. Then close the camera, making sure that the metal catch by the carrying handle snaps home.

Now turn the winding key slowly. Don’t wind too fast because, as you have already found out, the winding key winds only one way, so if you wind too far you can’t wind back again, and you will waste a piece of film.

Now you have wound on till figure (1) appears. One last look round to make sure all the levers are set correctly. See the opening setting guide again if you are not sure. You are ready to take the first snapshot.

How to hold a camera

This is the way to hold a camera. Press it gently against your body and, at the moment you snap, hold it quite steady. If you shake the camera as you snap, the whole picture will be blurred.

How to aim

Point the camera, holding it level, at whatever you want to photograph. Your eye should be directly above the view-finder so that you will see the picture perfectly framed in it.

You can take upright or lengthways pictures.

Move the camera very slightly from side to side, still holding it firmly against the body, until you see your picture level in the view-finder.

Snap in good light

Snapshots are “light pictures”; when you click the Exposure Lever the light comes through the “lens” of the camera and makes the picture on the film. The lens is the camera’s eye, and the shutter is like a little door, or eyelid, inside the front of the camera, which opens and shuts at a “wink” when you press the exposure lever. In dull light your camera cannot “see” much in that little “wink” which the shutter gives when you snap.

So until you have plenty of experience, snap only in good bright light.

Note. “Verichrome” Film – Kodak’s faster Film – will double your camera’s power to “see” quickly, and so enable you to snap in fairly dull light.

One more hint: stand with the sun to one side of you or behind you. This puts nice shadows and lights in the picture, particularly the little shadows which show the shape of the face in a portrait.

Don’t stand with the sun directly behind you if you can help it, because this kind of “lighting” produces a less interesting picture, and in portraits the sun may dazzle the eyes of your friend and make her “screw up” her face.

And don’t point the camera straight towards the sun (until you have experience), because that is apt to “dazzle” the eye of the camera and spoil the film.

Now you know about film and loading, about aiming and framing, about holding the camera still, and about setting it for different kinds of pictures.

You are ready to take portraits or landscapes or groups of people!

“Sharp” pictures

Your camera will always give you sharp pictures if you hold it still when snapping and the person or thing you are taking keeps still, provided you set the distance to “PORTRAITS” when the subject is anywhere between 4½ to 6 feet, for “GROUPS” when the subject is between 6 ft. and 12 ft., and for “LANDSCAPES” when the distance is more than 12 ft. This distance lever points normally to “LANDSCAPES” – and always returns automatically to this position when you let go.

In the second part of this book we tell you more about taking close-ups, but for ordinary snapshots the thing to remember is, set your camera for PORTRAITS before trying to snap anything close up (4½ to 6 ft.). Think of this particularly when taking small subjects such as babies and pets – don’t go nearer than 6 feet without setting the camera for PORTRAIT.

Part II – getting more out of your camera

In the close-up portrait section you will find some interesting notes about close-up portraits (nearer than 6 ft.).

Fast moving subjects, exceptionally bright light, pictures indoors and looking after your camera are covered in this part.

Note. If this is your first camera we strongly advise you to use your first roll of film on full-length portraits, landscapes and groups of people. You should, of course, keep this book with you and refer to it when you get your first films back from your Kodak Dealer, so that if any of the pictures are not successful you will be able to see why.

If they are all successful you will, we expect, like to read the second half of this book and try some of the more advanced kinds of pictures which that half tells you about.

How to take good close-up portraits

The best distance for a “close-up” is 4½ feet. This means that the lens of your camera should be 4½ feet away from the face of your friend. It is always best to measure this distance carefully, and the easiest way of measuring is to use the leather strap of the Kodak de luxe carrying case for your camera, which has distances marked on the inner side. Another good way is to get a piece of string measuring 4½ feet long and carry it in your pocket or handbag when you go out with your camera.

The things to remember when taking close-up portraits are, to be particularly careful about holding the camera level – don’t tilt it up – and to get a fairly high viewpoint; that is to say, it is usually better to take your friend sitting with the camera at the level of her neck. Thirdly, it is wise to avoid posing your friend in profile, because close-up photographs are inclined to exaggerate the object which is nearest the camera, which in this case would be your friend’s shoulder. If you particularly want a profile picture ask your friend to sit almost facing the camera and then turn her head to one side.

Taking things moving

As a rule, if you want to take snapshots of very restless children or pets, or of people walking or running, or of motor cars and other things which travel quickly, you will have to use one of the more advanced “Kodaks” with a shutter which will give a quick exposure – say 1/100th of a second.

This is four times quicker than the exposure you can get with your “Brownie,” which has a speed of about 1/25th of a second.

All the same, it is often possible to take good snaps of moving subjects with 1/25th second exposure, that is to say, with the simplest cameras.

Two things work in your favour. First, the further away the moving subject is, the less effect its movement has in blurring the picture, so that it is often possible to get your picture by keeping at a distance and afterwards having part of the picture enlarged until the subject is seen clearly. Any Kodak dealer will have an enlargement made of any of your pictures, or of any part of one of your pictures. Secondly, if the subject is moving towards you or away from – not across – you this also reduces the blurring effect. Here is a snapshot of a girl playing leapfrog, made with a “Brownie”; note the picture is quite sharp.

When to alter the “setting” of your camera

Your camera is at “normal” for snapshotting when it is set at “clear” (f.11). The largest “Stop” is then in position. Stops are round holes in a metal screen between the lenses. You can see three different sized holes as you move the lever from one setting to another. They control the amount of light that passes through the lens at the instant of exposure, and the smaller the “stop” is made, the less the amount of light that gets through.

Always use the largest stop f.11 for snapshots unless the light is very bright, such as on a sunny day at the seaside. Then you can move the lever to “Bright,” f.16. Using this smaller stop will prevent “over-exposure,” because not so much light will reach the film through it, but if you are doubtful as to the strength of the light, use the larger stop – one of the great things about Kodak film is that you can “over-expose” it quite a lot in good light, temporarily, without spoiling the picture. The smallest stop, f.22, must only be used when you are making time exposures, when you will find it very useful, because the smaller the stop the sharper the tiny details in the picture.

Indoors, or whenever the light is bad, make time exposures

What a time exposure is

All Kodak cameras are made so that you can take time exposures.

When you “click” the shutter for a snapshot the shutter opens and light acts on the film for 1/25th part of a second and then the shutter closes.

When you make a Time Exposure you yourself control the amount of time during which the shutter is open and light is acting on the film. After “setting” your “Brownie” for a Time Exposure by moving the indicator at the top of the shutter to “B” (see the indoor setting in the opening guide), you put the camera on a firm support and aim it carefully; you press the shutter lever down, hold it down for as long as you decide will be correct, and then release the lever, thus closing the shutter.

The longer the Time Exposure, the more light will reach the film; the shorter the Time Exposure, the less light will reach the film. So it is obvious that if the light is only rather dull – say, in the open-air at 8 o’clock on a summer evening – you will only need a Short Time Exposure (probably just as long as it takes you to open and close the shutter quickly and steadily), while if the light is very bad for photographing – such as indoors on a dull day – you will have to give a Long Time Exposure (10 or 20 seconds, or more).

Tips about time exposures

Both the camera and the subject must be kept dead still during a time exposure.

1. You must put the camera on a tripod or some other firm support when making a Time Exposure, and also be careful not to shake it at all during the exposure.
2. To get sharper detail into your pictures you can “stop down” to f.16 or f.22. These smaller stops need longer exposures, of course, because they cut down the light entering the lens; but for certain subjects (interiors without people, for example) a long exposure presents no difficulties.
3. You must never try to make a Time Exposure with the camera held in your hands.
4. If the subject moves at all during the Time Exposure the part which has moved will be blurred in the picture because there will really be two or more pictures of the part that moved on the one piece of film.

So it is useless to try to take Time Exposures of restless subjects such as animals (except when they are asleep) or restless children. Even grown-up people will have to take particular care to keep quite still.

There is always a certain amount of difficulty in deciding how many seconds to keep the shutter open when making a Time Exposure, because it all depends on the amount of light available and this can only be roughly estimated. After one or two experiments you will get sufficient experience to enable you to judge roughly how long the exposure should be.

If you want to know

The time will soon come when you will want to try new kinds of pictures, out-of-the-ordinary photographs.

The use of a Colour Filter, Snapshots Indoors with “Photoflood” Lamps, Silhouette pictures, Pictures At Night out of doors, Colouring your own prints, Enlarging from your negatives – these are some of the things you will want to know about.

Then is the time to buy the book “How to Make Good Pictures” (historical price indistinct in the source), of which over a million copies have been sold, from your Kodak Dealer.

Cable release

It is sometimes an advantage to use a Cable Release instead of the Exposure Lever, to avoid all risk of jarring the camera – as when making Time Exposures, for instance. The Release (No. 3) is obtainable at your Kodak Dealer’s. It is screwed in the hole provided on the camera, as shown above. The other end can be slipped underneath the carrying handle when the camera is not in use.

Look after your camera

Kodak made your “Brownie” Camera with the greatest care. It will never let you down, if you look after it. If you don’t you may find that your pictures are getting worse instead of better and better.

You must be careful to keep your camera free from dust, especially the lens. A well-washed linen handkerchief is the best for cleaning the lens.

A carrying case

When you’re not actually “snapping,” always keep your camera in a carrying case to protect it against dust and damp air.

If ever you think there is something wrong with your camera, let your Kodak Dealer see it. He will inspect it and if necessary get it repaired for you.

“Velox”

“Velox” is the name of the Kodak Printing Paper for your snapshots. Always insist on having your prints made on “Velox” – the name is on the back of every piece of printing paper. “Velox” paper is made by Kodak specially for your snapshots. Your Kodak Dealer will respect your choice. He knows that “Velox” paper is made in several “grades” to suit over-exposed negatives, correctly exposed negatives and under-exposed negatives, and that “Velox” therefore gives you the best print that can be got from each of your negatives, even the “bad ones.”

Last thoughts before snapping

• Have I wound on so that the next figure appears in the red window like this (3)?
• Is the sun behind me and on one side?
• Have I set the shutter for a snapshot (1/25th of a second)?
• Have I set the stop lever at the largest stop all right?

Then get the subject all in the view-finder, level, central, eye directly over the glass.

Steady the camera tightly but gently against the body and press the shutter lever steadily.

Kodak Ltd., Kodak House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2.