so ive been flying my mini 3 for about 8 months now and i feel like im decent at not crashing it lol but honestly my photos just look... meh. like they're technically fine, no blur, horizon is level, but when i look at other peoples shots online they just have this depth and drama to them that mine completely lack.

i shoot in auto mostly because i was scared to mess with settings but i started shooting in jpeg and i think maybe thats part of the problem? someone told me to shoot raw but then what do i even do with a raw file, i dont have lightroom or anything fancy. also i tend to just point the camera straight down or straight forward, i dont really think much about where the sun is or any of that stuff. any advice would be genuinely appreciated, im not trying to go pro just want shots i actually want to hang on my wall

oh man the auto + jpeg combo is definitely holding you back, not gonna lie. switching to raw made such a huge difference for me even though it felt intimidating at first. the good news is you dont need lightroom ? darktable is completely free and actually really capable once you get used to it, or even the free version of lightroom mobile does a lot. raw just gives you so much more to work with in post, especially recovering highlights in skies which is like the number one problem with drone shots.

the other thing id say is golden hour is not a cliche for no reason. the light at like 30-45 minutes after sunrise does something to landscapes that midday sun just cant replicate, everything gets texture and shadow and it stops looking flat. and try tilting the gimbal to like 45 degrees sometimes instead of full forward or straight nadir ? that in-between angle catches horizon AND foreground detail and it changed everything for me compositionally. also look for leading lines when you can, roads, rivers, coastlines, anything that pulls the eye into the frame.

im kind of in the same boat as you so take this with a grain of salt but the one thing that helped me was just slowing down and actually thinking before i hit the shutter. like i used to just hover somewhere and spam photos hoping one would be good. now i actually look at the screen and think about what the main subject is supposed to be, and honestly even that small change made my shots less random feeling. still figuring out the settings side of things myself tbh