The most fundamental change to digital in photography is the rise in its produc-tion. Obviously, under the skin of this rise, the improvement in production con-ditions of photography has come into play. The process that began with Camera Obscura still continues with Camera Obscura under electronic conditions. These different conditions have seriously influenced and eased the production process of photography and have thus raised its production. Since the day that Nicephore Niepce took the first photograph in eight hours in 1826, many factors from expo-sure time to changes in optical elements and the improvement in sensor-ISO con-text that affect the decrease in time of production have already been scrutinized.
The speed of taking a photo with a digital camera increases breathtakingly and this speed is stated as a shot per second. This allows us to make a retrospective comparison and indicates that this speed is going to be higher in the future with the help of digital technologies. As a result, the first thing that comes up after any possible change in the number of photos shot is technologic improvements.
“In comparison with digital ones, film cameras are too slow. Even preparing and ready-to-shot analog cameras take much time. At least putting the film in takes some time. For installing an analog camera, we need more time than we need for digital ones” (Ö. Yurdalan, oral interview, July 13, 2016).
The speed in digital technology also originates from the ISO performance of cameras. ISO performance indicates the light sensitiveness of the film. The advantages of digital cameras in taking a clear photograph and shortening the photographing time under low or bad light conditions cannot be underesti-mated. Technology improves some means while it limits others. “One of the epitomes of this is that digital cameras reduce the sensor quality and transfer from CCD sensor to CMOS sensor in order to increase ISO performance. It is possible to get from a camera that was bought ten years ago a record tone which does not exist in a newly bought one. At this point, we can see that camera
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producers begin using high ISO performance devices changing the sensor type”
(E. Güneysu, oral interview, July 12, 2016). Digital technology might compen-sate for sensor quality in order to increase the speed as a result of significantly increasing the speed.
“Less photograph would be taken after a long consideration in analog photog-raphy. But now, more photograph can be taken after a little consideration. The speed in digital photography encourages photographers to shot more. It can be concluded that digital photography is based on speed while analog photography is based on slowness” (H. Kasapoğlu, oral interview, May 7, 2016). “The speed, provided by the opportunity digital photography gives us doesn’t provide quality.
Photographs should be taken slowly and deeply” (Ö. Yurdalan, oral interview, July 13, 2016). However, the speed of digital photography causes the relationship between speed and theme to be superficial.
It is obvious that production type in digital photography provides numerical production. Another reason for producing so many photographs is about the production costs of a digital photograph. “For instance, we can get a production range equal to 100.000 analog photographs with a camera that costs 1000 USD.
This is a great opportunity. In analog age, the fact that production depended on film made it difficult to shot for the photographers due to financial abilities.
However, the fact that digital cameras do not depend on film provides a great freedom of production to photographers once they have the camera” (S. Yaman, oral interview, May 28, 2016). While the financial situation needed for providing photograph production conditions in the analog age should be continuous, this trouble is completely managed in the digital age once a camera is bought.
“Because analog photography is costly while digital photography is not, many can be taken. This causes two things: Firstly; build-up in photograph archives. People think they get a good result from producing a photograph. This, in fact, is a con-tradiction. A photographer might have hundreds, thousands or millions of pho-tographs. Many of these photographs are wasted in archives. Secondly, among all these photos the ones which have real quality are also wasted in those archives. This kind of photographers makes a product that he can not manage” (H. Kasapoğlu, oral interview, May 7, 2016). “What adopted as a production process in digital photogra-phy is a confrontational manner. Photographers keep a large number of images due to some reasons such as mass photo taking, confrontational manner and taking the picture of the same theme all the time. A need of checking this pile occurs. Because photographers take too many photos in the shooting period, neither can he check all these photos, nor completely manage the theme. This shooting process makes the photographers miss the theme” (E. Güneysu, oral interview, July 12, 2016).
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“Together with the fact that there are many reasons for vagary in image pro-duction, we here by face with a pile of images as a result more than these reasons”
(H. Yılmaz, oral interview, May 12, 2016). “The best way of getting away from this pile is to archive photographs in the correct way. Archiving them in a correct way is based on classifying photographs and coding them with letters. Otherwise, it is going to be a pile not an archive” (Ö. Yurdalan, oral interview, July 13, 2016).
Both analog and digital archiving have some difficulties. The greatest risk in analog archiving systems is the deterioration of the film. It can go bad in time.
So, we may keep some copies of that film. “There are two more risks in digital ar-chives: Firstly, irremediable loses which happen as a result of permanent damages in digital record atmosphere, including the archives. A virus called ransom locks the photographs so that passwords cannot open it and this makes it impossible to reach them. This fact shows that it is not possible to trust digital archives” (S.
Yaman, oral interview, May 28, 2016). Because of this, printing photographs is getting more and more important. While we can easily reach old photographs that were taken many years ago, it is not so easy to be able to reach the ones that were produced a short while ago.
The main image is affected less by other things in a digital photograph. “In analog photography, the fact that chemical bathing solution is not good and the film is not good or too good affects the results directly” (S. Yaman, oral interview, May 28, 2016). The fact that such chemical things do not happen in digital photog-raphy puts photogphotog-raphy in the same conditions and results. “However, the sensor which indicates different light positions and light sources in a different way poses varied results in digital photography. In analog photography, 10 frames can be placed on one film and the same results might be achieved bathing this film in the same chemical bath” (Güneysu, oral interview, July 12, 2016). In this respect, in terms of recording, analog photography could give the same results for all the photographers. However, in digital photography, variation in terms of recording is much higher. The programmes in the camera produce the photographs in ac-cordance with the conditions given.
Güneysu (oral interview, May 7, 2016) says that digital photography comes up with a good result in black-and-white photography as analog does. In digital photography, even the best camera cannot provide a good enough black-and-white photograph. Kasapoğlu discusses the issue that digital cameras use a system of zeros and ones so it cannot include semitones (oral interview, May 7, 2016).
According to William Mitchell (1992): “There is an indefinite amount of infor-mation in a continuous- tone photograph usually reveals more details. A digital image consists of a finite number of pixels, each having a distinct color or a tonal
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value, and this number determines the amount of detail an image can represent”
(Manovich, 1995: 8).
“Photography belonging is more in digital. A photographer can reach the result directly in digital photography. This lets people see the photograph without a need of anyone else. In the age of analog photography production, many – especially amateurs – did not use to prepare and print their own photographs. They had to continue this process in need of a third person’s help. This third person could both see the photographs and copy them for his/herself too. In this respect, digi-tal photography provides freedom. Homes are like labs and private photographs should be printed only as the owner could see them” (S. Yaman, oral interview, May 28, 2016).
The system in which print is not needed as in digital photography has caused it to become ordinary. Güneysu says, “Everything of which workmanship part of itself disappeared will be a slave to be enslaved”. Digital photography has ended crafts. Yaman says, “Easiness, comes with digital has ended craft and eased photog-raphy. So the respect to photographers was gone. Analog’s difficult printing makes it not so easy”. This fact prevents easiness and provides quality work. Digital, in this respect, both ended the learned master-apprentice relationship and made photography easy. Where photography is used affects where it will be taken and where it will be used. Photography can be classified into types according to varied media. This also changes the production types of photographs (H. Kasapoğlu, oral interview, May 7, 2016). Digital photography has increased the number of photographs and changed the way of sharing them. Digital photographs would be taken so that one can share it all over the world. Social media tools and those pages which are only for sharing photography have increased photograph shar-ing. “Social media supports photography. What makes photography so famous is social media itself ” (Güneysu, oral interview, July 12, 2016). In this respect, we are faced with two consistent concepts. In digitally produced photographs, the principle of social media, which enables people to show their photos and share them, feed each other. Both concepts integrate their presences with one another.
Another concept that has become as easy as sharing is transfer. Digitally pro-duced photographs can be transferred in different ways. Digital photographs can be transferred digitally so it does not cost much and is easy while an analog photograph can be sent only as itself because it cannot be copied as the same with its original.
Digital photography should effect the editorship period in such ways: Mass production has increased the need for people who will decide the principles of how to choose the proper photograph. The need to choose the correct photograph
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has increased. “In analog age, if photographers wanted to hold an exhibition, they would have to consult many people in order to get permission. Today, a pho-tographer might hold an online exhibition. So the need of an editor is less than ever and even this need can be met in two ways: photographs should be checked to someone else or everyone should be good at editing his own photographs”
(H. Yılmaz, oral interview, July 14, 2016).
“In analog photography age, photographers set light to specific events. For example, in the famous photo called “Vulture and the Child”, concepts like Africa and hunger were included and one would envisage this picture when he thought of those concepts. This legendary photography term ended with the rise of digital.
The number of iconic photography has increased and because this flow is too fast, people can keep fewer photographers in their memories” (H. Yılmaz, oral interview, July 14, 2016).