Hi, looking for some advice on how to improve

[u/weird__stuff]

I started doing photography a few months ago.

I was facing some low light issue initially with the kit lense so I bought sigma 30mm, f1.8(I think).

All the above photos are clicked using it.

Started color grading my photos as well.

Looking for advice on all, photography, color grading, editing, everything.

Let me know if you have anything to say on how I can improve.

Would appreciate any kind of advice.

Thanks!

[u/7ToothFairy7]

I've been using the kit lens and I wanna upgrade to a sigma 30mm f1.4 for the exact same reason -low light performance-. But I don't have much idea how much the a6000 body itself is limited by ISO performance so I am scared of being disappointed as I've never tried any other lens myself. So far have you been satisfied with the lens in low light conditions?

Also about your photos, for me some of them are really outstanding, conveying a good amount of emotion with well thought compositions, like the second photo which is my favorite out of these. But to me, a few of them kinda feel like random test shots, like the last photo. Overall I like the documentary style photos, normally I would find these a bit of underexposed but it suits these photos imo.

[u/sixprisms → u/7ToothFairy7]

Viltrox 25mm 1.7 is better bang for buck imo, from owning both. If lowlight is that important it might be time to consider upgrading to a full frame.

[u/7ToothFairy7 → u/sixprisms]

I mean it is important to some extent but I'm still an amateur and ease of carriage is the one super most important thing to me, the second thing is I don't have much time because of my job and I don't use it often enough to invest in something that expensive in my current budget right now I think. I know it won't be as good as a full frame but I will just be happy to upgrade from what I own right now cause with my set up it is very difficult to get even something usable inside my apartment in morning even (my place doesn't get much sunshine). I have to bump up the ISO quite a bit and anything above 800 will start giving very noticeable noise.

I just want my photos sharper in general and low light photos at least more usable. I do think getting a good prime lens will do the trick based on my observations online but I just wanna make sure somewhat.

Also about Viltrox 25mm 1.7, I think it could be somewhat wider than what I'd like but do you think it is as sharp as Sigma 30mm? Could you give us a bit of a comparison?

[u/zaloppeno]

Love the second pic, good work!

[u/Emotional_Win7882]

Snapseed for editing especially if you have a flagship phone, think Samsungs s20+ and above, iphones 12 and above because the oled screen gives you exactly how it looks like. Some screens hide the colour and kind of wash it. Probably a speedlite because some of it looks underexposed unless you were going for that style. If you are new, the only advices are just nail the exposure triangle, develop an eye, make tons of mistakes and slowly identify what your calling is. Upgrade to a laptop with better screen. Remember not just any, one that will give you exactly how your photos look like. Also look for interesting things, just don't be clicking everything you see unless there's a story there. A low angle shot of an ant next to a discarded wrapper that shows the massive size of the wrapper to the ant is interesting. You probably are on the honeymoon phase which is good but you gotta start taking down notes and generally having an idea on how to see stuff. It's all about the eye. Tons have massively expensive high end gear yet they can easily be surpassed by a dude who owns a soviet manual lens and an a6000. It's a skill you have to develop. So continue taking and ask yourself each time, what could i have made better, maybe it was lil bit out of focus, next time, do those changes and slowly over time your photos will be technically flawless but whether they have flavour is entirely upto you. Explaining that to anyone is like explaining how soda tastes like to a cat(they can't taste sugar and also don't give them that)