so ive been flying my mini 3 pro for a few months now and honestly the video footage looks pretty decent but my photos especially on bright sunny days just look totally blown out and flat. i shoot in auto mode mostly which i know is probably the issue but every time i try to mess with the settings manually i either get too dark or still too bright and i cant seem to find the sweet spot.

someone at my local flying club mentioned shooting in d-log or something like that but i honestly dont fully understand what that means or if it even applies to photos. do people shoot photos in log format too or is that just a video thing? and what about ND filters for photos, are those even worth it or is that more of a video thing as well

also any basic advice on composition would be great, i feel like my shots are technically ok sometimes but they just look boring compared to what i see other people posting. not sure if thats a settings thing or just how im framing shots

okay so the washed out thing is almost definitely your histogram being way off to the right ? on sunny days you really want to dial down your exposure compensation, like try -0.7 or even -1.0 as a starting point and then adjust from there. auto mode on the mini 3 tends to expose for the ground and completely blows out the sky which looks awful.

for photos specifically, d-log m is actually available on the mini 3 pro for stills too, not just video, but honestly for photos i'd say shoot in raw (or raw+jpeg so you have a backup) with a manual or semi-manual exposure and just fix it in lightroom after. log for photos is kind of overkill unless you're doing really serious post work. ND filters help a lot for video smoothness but for photos on a bright day a circular polarizer is more useful ? cuts glare off water and makes skies pop way more than any ND will.

as for composition, the thing that made the biggest difference for me was just forcing myself to fly lower than felt comfortable. everyone defaults to flying way up high and looking straight down or at a shallow angle and it just ends up looking like every other drone shot. get in close to something interesting, use leading lines like roads or rivers, that kind of thing. takes some practice but once it clicks you'll see it everywhere

im in basically the same boat as you lol been flying for like 4 months and my photos are hit or miss. one thing that actually helped me a lot was just shooting during golden hour instead of midday ? like the hour after sunrise or before sunset. the light is so much softer and warmer and honestly even my badly composed shots look way better just because of the light. doesnt really solve the technical settings stuff but it made a noticeable difference for me right away without having to learn everything at once