so ive been flying for about 8 months now and i feel like my piloting has gotten pretty solid but my footage still just looks... amateur? like i watch it back and compared to the stuff i see on youtube its just not the same. i know part of it is probably just experience but i feel like im missing something technically.

im mostly flying a mini 3 pro, shooting in 4k, and i have cinemasmoothness turned on or whatever its called. but even with that my shots have this kind of floaty but also slightly jerky quality if that makes sense. like when i do a slow orbit around a subject it looks okay but then when i try to do like a reveal shot coming over a treeline it just doesnt feel cinematic at all.

do i need ND filters? is it an editing thing? ive been using davinci resolve but mostly just cutting clips together, not really doing much color work. any advice would be appreciated, genuinely feel a little stuck

yeah ND filters will genuinely change your life for this. the rule of thumb is your shutter speed should be roughly double your frame rate so if youre shooting 4k 30fps you want your shutter at 60, and to get there in bright daylight without blowing out the exposure you need NDs. the reason this matters for smoothness is when your shutter is too fast (like auto mode will often push it to 500 or higher) every frame is super sharp and your brain picks up on tiny movements between frames. with the right ND and shutter speed you get a little natural motion blur between frames and it just looks way more... filmy i guess.

also for the treeline reveal shot specifically, slow way down. like slower than you think. and try to time it so theres something specific being revealed, a mountain, a building, whatever. the shot needs a payoff or it just feels like you flew over a tree for no reason lol. editing helps too, a subtle speed ramp can make reveals feel way more intentional.

im kind of in the same boat as you actually so take this with a grain of salt but one thing that helped me was just... flying slower. like embarrassingly slow. i used to think speed looked cool but when i watch the footage back the slow controlled moves just look so much better. also someone told me to use the sport mode toggle to slow down the stick sensitivity even when not in sport mode, not sure if that works on mini 3 the same way but worth looking into