so anyway this has been bugging me for a while. i went out to this coastal spot last weekend, cliffs, turquoise water, golden hour light, literally picture perfect conditions. and i came home and looked at the photos and they just felt... meh. like technically fine i guess, everything in focus, good exposure, but it just doesnt have that wow factor that i see on instagram from other drone photographers.

i think its a composition issue but i dont really know how to think about composition when youre flying. on the ground i know to look for leading lines and foreground interest and all that but when youre 80 meters up looking straight down or at a 45 degree angle it feels like different rules apply. do people have any go-to approaches for this? also open to editing tips if thats part of the problem, im pretty basic in lightroom, just doing some exposure and contrast tweaks nothing fancy

the straight down nadir shot gets old fast unless theres something really compelling in the pattern or geometry below you. what tends to work better for coastlines especially is a low angle, like 30 to 45 degrees, where you can still see the horizon and get depth in the image. the water leading into the cliffs with sky above is so much more dynamic than looking straight down at the same thing.

also try to find something to anchor the frame, a rock formation, a boat, even a person on the beach if thats allowed. without a focal point the eye just wanders around and the shot feels empty even if the colours are gorgeous. ive started flying lower than i used to because of this, closer to 20-30m instead of always going for altitude

honestly editing might be a bigger part of it than you think. i was in the same boat and then i watched a couple of youtube videos on aerial photo editing specifically and it completely changed my results without me changing how i shoot at all. things like adding a slight haze reduction, boosting the texture slider, being more aggressive with colour grading than you would on a ground photo because the colours can look washed out from altitude even on a clear day. give that a go and see if it helps before you overthink the composition side of things