okay so i can fly fine, my footage is technically decent i think, exposure is okay, its stable. but when i look back at my shots they just look like google maps. like yeah its a field, yeah its a parking lot, yeah its a neighborhood. cool i guess. i see other peoples work and it has this like... depth and mood to it and i genuinely cannot figure out what theyre doing differently. is it all just editing or is there something happening compositionally that im not getting

i mostly shoot stills not video if that changes anything. been at this about a year.

honestly the map problem is almost always about shooting straight down too much. nadir shots have their place but if thats all you do everything does look flat. try shooting at like 45 degrees or even lower to get that sense of depth and horizon, it changes everything. shadows become leading lines, buildings get dimension, you start to feel like youre actually in a space rather than looking at a diagram of one.

also think about what time youre shooting. midday sun is brutal for this kind of work, the shadows are short and everything looks equally lit which flattens stuff out even more. late afternoon when the sun is low and shadows are long is where the magic usually is. your shots will suddenly have texture and drama you didnt know was there

something that helped me was just studying landscape photography rules and applying them from the air. like the rule of thirds still works, leading lines still work, you just have to train yourself to see them from above. rivers, roads, fences, shorelines - all of that stuff becomes a compositional tool once you start looking for it before you fly instead of just hovering and hoping something looks good

also dont sleep on negative space. big empty field with one small barn in the corner can be way more interesting than trying to cram everything in