Elevation contours are one of the most useful products you can derive from a drone survey, turning a flat surface model into a readable map of hills, valleys, and slopes.

Start with a clean digital elevation model. Check for spikes, holes, or edge artifacts, and clip the model to your area of interest. Note whether your model is a surface model, which includes buildings and trees, or a terrain model of bare ground.

Generate contours with the Contour tool in the Processing Toolbox. The key setting is the contour interval: a small interval shows fine detail but crowds steep ground, while a large interval reads cleanly but hides subtle terrain.

Style and label for readability. Make index contours thicker and darker, keep intermediate contours thin and light, and label the index contours with their elevation values.

Contours are more useful alongside slope and hillshade. From the same elevation model, QGIS can derive both, and layering a subtle hillshade beneath your contours makes the terrain instantly readable.

Before sharing the map, check accuracy against known heights or survey points, and note the source and date of the elevation model. State the accuracy honestly on your deliverable.

For a finished map, export your contours and hillshade into a print layout. QGIS print layouts let you combine the contour layer, a hillshade, a scale bar, a north arrow, and a title into a professional map sheet, and you can save the layout as a template for future surveys. Store the contour layer in a GeoPackage alongside the elevation model and orthophoto, so the whole project travels as a small set of files with consistent names and dates. A tidy project folder is part of the deliverable: the next person who opens it should be able to tell what was flown, when, and how the contours were made.