About this edition
This text edition transcribes the booklet How to Succeed with your SIX-20 “BROWNIE” JUNIOR, whose cover states: These instructions also apply to the Super Model. Kodak Limited, Kingsway, W.C.2. Printer code 3251 KW9738. No publication date is identified. All readable printed text through page 22 and the back cover is retained from thirteen source images; photographs and diagrams are omitted. This edition specifies a three-foot portrait distance and differs from the other Junior booklet. Original spelling and printed page references are retained.
Credit: Kodak Limited, London. Source copy: The Brownie Camera Page.
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, get to know your “Brownie.” Glance through this booklet and practice “working” the Exposure lever and “Time” lever and generally become used to the camera. Practise using it without any film inside; it will only take a few minutes, after which you will be ready to go ahead with making real pictures.
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?
Your Six-20 “Brownie” was designed to use Kodak Film – the most widely used film in the world. Always use Kodak Film, made by the makers of your camera. Four grades are available:
Kodak Regular Film
Supremely reliable for sunshine snaps and time exposures under any conditions. For your Six-20 “Brownie” be sure to ask for Kodak Film 620.
Kodak “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, even. “Verichrome,” in effect, helps your “Brownie” to ‘see’ more clearly.
You need V620 “Verichrome” Film for your Six-20 “Brownie” Junior. 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 and “Panatomic” Films
When you have had some practice at using Kodak or “Verichrome” Film (“Verichrome” for preference) you will be ready to try Kodak Super Sensitive Panchromatic and “Panatomic” Films. These films are sensitive to all colours, including red, and they give pictures of brilliant quality. With them you can even take indoor pictures at night with wonderfully short time exposures, by using one or more “Photoflood” lamps. But like all high-grade materials they require skilled handling at every stage – taking, developing, printing – so before going on to Super Sensitive and “Panatomic,” practice with the less advanced films first.
How to Load
Of course this camera can be loaded and unloaded in daylight. But don’t do either in the full glare of the sun. Always get into the shade before you start to load or unload.
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 your film and are sure it is the right size. Now follow these pictures:
Lift up the metal catch on top of the camera, as it shows you in the first picture, and open the back.
Draw out the winding key on the side as far as it will come, turning it slightly at the same time. This will allow you to take out the inside portion of the camera (‘roll-holder’) from the main part (‘body’), like this:
Break the white gummed paper that goes round the spool of film, and put the spool in the top spool-chamber, as shown on left, so that the black side of the red and black paper faces down.
Take out the empty spool from the other spool-chamber at the bottom of the roll-holder.
Draw the red paper over the two rollers, like this, and thread the tapered end into the longer slot in the empty spool. Give this spool two or three forward turns to make sure that the paper has been caught securely and is running smoothly and squarely on to the spool.
Don’t unroll too much of the red paper, otherwise the light might get through to the film itself and ‘fog’ (spoil) it.
Now put the spool back into the spool-chamber. Replace the roll-holder in the body of the camera so that the words ‘KEY SIDE’ come on the same side as the winding key.
Then close the back, making sure that the metal catch fastens securely.
Press in the winding key and turn it slowly until you feel it catch in the end of the spool inside the camera. Go on turning and watch the little red window at the back of the camera. After a few turns a warning hand will appear; then turn slowly until the figure 1 comes into the centre of the window. Now you are ready to take the first snapshot.
Press in the winding key as you turn it. Don’t wind too fast because as you have already found out, the winding key winds only one way, so if you wind too fast you cannot wind back again and you will waste the film.
As soon as you have taken a picture, wind the film on until the next number appears in the red window. Remember to do this every time, otherwise you may take two pictures on the same piece of film and, of course, spoil them both.
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, as shown in the picture, at whatever you want to photograph. Your eye should be directly above the view-finder so that you will see the picture properly ‘framed’ in it.
You can take upright or horizontal 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.
Then press the Exposure Lever (as you aim the camera the Exposure Lever is the bottom lever on the right) up or down, once, slowly and smoothly. This makes the picture. Don’t move it up and down – one movement only clicks the shutter.
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 ‘in 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.
Illustration caption: How the light enters the camera and makes the picture.
So until you have plenty of experience, snap only in a good bright light.
Note. “Verichrome” Film – Kodak’s Faster Film – will increase 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 half-behind you. This gets 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 that 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 towards the sun (until you have experience) because that is apt to ‘dazzle’ the eye of the camera and spoil the film.
How to Unload
After you have taken the last picture (No. 8) turn the winding key until you see the end of the red paper go past the window.
The film can now be taken out from the camera. Open the back of the camera, as described on page 7. This, of course, like the loading of the camera, should be done in the shade and not in direct sunlight. Take out the roll-holder. Hold the end of the red protecting paper and the white gummed sticker together to prevent the paper from becoming loose. If the sticker has been wound underneath the spool, turn the spool to bring it up. Then lift out the roll of exposed film.
Fold under about half-an-inch of the red paper and fasten it down with the sticker.
After you have taken out the film from the camera do not wind it tightly with a twisting motion, or the film might get scratched.
The film should be developed as soon as possible after exposure.
It is a good plan to reload the camera as soon as you have taken out the exposed film, so that you are ready for the next picture.
Part II – Getting More out of Your Camera
In the next few pages you will find some interesting notes about CLOSE-UP PORTRAITS (with a Kodak Portrait Attachment). FAST MOVING SUBJECTS. PICTURES INDOORS and LOOKING AFTER YOUR CAMERA.
Note. If this is your first camera we strongly advise you to use your first roll of film on 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 (as they will be if you follow the instructions so far) 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
In the ordinary way it is not advisable to stand nearer than about 8 or 10 feet to your subject, otherwise it will appear slightly blurred (‘out-of-focus’) in the final picture. To take a sharp ‘close-up’ portrait you need a Kodak Portrait Attachment, a little additional lens that slips in front of the ordinary “Brownie” lens. You can get a Portrait Attachment (you need No. 1 J. for the Six-20 “Brownie” Junior or Super Model) from the Kodak dealer who supplied this camera. Having put the Attachment on, you proceed to use the camera just as you would for ordinary subjects.
The best distance for a ‘close-up’ is 3 feet. This means that the lens of your camera should be 3 feet away from the face of your friend. It is always best to measure this distance carefully. A good plan is to get a piece of string measuring 3 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 view-point’ – 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 best to avoid posing your friend in profile, because close-up photographs are inclined to exaggerate the size of whatever 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.
Indoors, or whenever the Light is bad, Make Time Exposures
What a Time Exposure is
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.
To set your “Brownie” for a Time Exposure, move the Time Lever (the upper lever on the right of the camera, just above the Exposure Lever) to the letter ‘T.’ Press the lever back (towards the back of the camera) and slide it along. Then put the camera on a firm support such as a tripod and aim it carefully. Press the Exposure Lever to the other end of the slot: this opens the shutter. Leave it open for as long as you decide will be correct, then move the Exposure Lever back again. This closes the shutter. Two movements of the Exposure Lever are needed for a Time Exposure; only one for a Snapshot.
After making a Time Exposure, don’t forget to move the Time Lever back again to the other end of the slot before you make another Snapshot.
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 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.
- So for time exposures you must put the camera on some firm support, such as a tripod. There are two tripod sockets in the camera, one for horizontal, the other for vertical pictures. You must be careful not to shake or jar the camera during the exposure.
Of course, you must never try to make a Time Exposure with the camera held in your hands.
- 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 gain 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” (1/-), of which over a million copies have been sold, from your Kodak Dealer.
Look After Your Camera
Kodak made your “Brownie” with the greatest care. It will never let you down if you look after it.
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. It is made in several “grades” to suit over-exposed negatives, correctly exposed negatives and under-exposed negatives. “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?
THEN GET THE SUBJECT all in the view finder, level, central, eyes directly over the glass.
STEADY THE CAMERA lightly but firmly against the body and PRESS THE SHUTTER LEVER STEADILY.
Kodak Ltd., Kodak House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2.
Small printer code: 3251 KW9738.