so ive been flying for about 8 months now mostly just messing around but lately ive been trying to get into actually filming stuff properly and watching youtube tutorials but honestly most of them feel like ads for ND filters or whatever

my footage just looks kinda shaky and stuttery even when im flying slow and smooth, like the movement itself feels fine when im doing it but then i watch it back and its just not that floaty dreamy look i see other people getting. im on a mini 3 pro if that matters. do i just need to practice more or is there something fundamental im missing about settings or technique

the shutter speed thing is probably what's killing you honestly. there's this rule where your shutter should be double your framerate so if you're shooting 30fps you want 1/60 shutter, 24fps means 1/50. most people leaving the drone on auto shutter end up with way too fast a shutter speed especially in daylight and that's what gives you that choppy stroby look instead of natural motion blur. you'll need ND filters to pull the shutter down in bright conditions which is probably why you keep seeing people talk about them, they're actually useful not just a upsell thing

also try shooting in d-log or whatever flat profile your mini 3 supports, gives you way more to work with in post even if it looks washed out straight out of the drone

had the exact same problem when i started and for me it was actually my movements more than settings, like i thought i was being slow and gentle but going back through footage i was still making these little micro corrections constantly. what helped me was just... stopping. like actually coming to a full hover and waiting a second before starting a move and then easing into it super gradually. sounds obvious but i wasnt doing it at all before