About technique and more.
As you know I love older cameras and film.
When I got the chance to bought two cleaned and working Zeiss Ikon Nettar cameras a while ago I jumped at the opportunity and bought the cameras. These cameras are not only cool to use as a prop but also to shoot with. The first camera I tested is a 6×9 camera (I also got a 6×6)
A lot of photographers probably experience this, so maybe it’s time to write a blog post about it.
Actually this blogpost was triggered by a question on my blog :
Hey Frank I love your photography and I’m a true admirer of your work so Frank here is the 1, 000, 000 dollar question. The type of photography you do involves some type of nude or imply photography I also know your wife works with you but to those that don’t get to work with the other half doing this type of shoot… how do you deal with this subject matter with your other half ? As you get to do a test shoot and trying a new model for upcoming events or just to try a new lighting …I’m just wondering how you would go about it ? This is a subject I talk with other photographers but I would like to get your input on this one. 🙂
Now let me put it very simply, and I hope I don’t upset people with my answer, especially not the person asking this question, because I really mean this is in the most positive way, as soon as you think about glamour or implied nudity as something “weird” or “wrong” DON’T shoot it. Now this sounds a bit harsh so let me explain.
Wow I guess there are way more people interested in developing themselves than I expected.
The most asked questions are “what do I need, and how to do it?”
Normally you can not answer this all in one blog post but with developing your own film it’s actually very simple (much simpler than you might guess). Because I mainly develop C41 at the moment I will share my “recipe” for this, and it’s actually pretty standard, although I have to add, some things were not in the manual from the kit I got (which led to destroying my first roll of film).
What do you need
Actually not that much.
You need the kit to develop, I use the Tetenal C41 kit which is very easy to obtain online.
![tetenal-c41-kit-1l-681-p[ekm]300x251[ekm]](https://frankdoorhof.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/tetenal-c41-kit-1l-681-pekm300x251ekm.jpg)
Now this looks intimidating right…….
Well it is not, in essence you will end up with 3 bottles.
The developer
The Blix
The Stabilizer
The most asked question is without a doubt :
“I wanna become a pro… how to do it?”
Well one could say of course, go to school, get a diploma, get some work experience and start working for yourself. However with art (and photography is art) this is a bit more difficult. In the Netherlands photography has been a free profession for some time, meaning everyone can call themselves a photographer, and if you earn a certain percentage of your income from photography… well you’re a pro. Now let’s see what to do to become that pro shall we?
