Actually you don't need to storyboard to work like a professional, (many acclaimed directors and cinematographers do not use storyboards), but if using storyboards helps, then by all means use them. They are a great way to gain the experience needed to plan your shots. With experience, you may find you too will not need to storyboard. Then again, you may come to rely on storyboarding to get your films made to the best of your ability. Nothing wrong with that.
If money is a issue, hand drawing or having someone who is talented at drawing is a good way to start out storyboarding. Later, you can always purchase
Gorilla Student Edition. This is a awesome software program for any filmmaker. Don't let the "student" title mislead you, it's not referring to college student discounts, it is Gorilla's version for short / indie filmmaking with limitations. Read more about the software from the link. And while you are on the Gorilla web site, be sure to check out
the features of this software. It wil do everything you will need and it works great on a Mac! I have been using this software for two years now. Meanwhile, next time you are in development or pre-production of the next film you want to shoot, you can download the Gorilla Student demo. There are limitations with the demo, but you wil be amazed at what this software will do for you.
Lighting is complicated and time consuming. Btw; for both Int & Ext shots. So for now, I will add to improving sound as mentioned above. Sound doesn't have to be as complicated.
Sound is just as important as the image, here are a couple of tips (when money is tight and a sound mixer is out of the question) to aid you -
Always have on the camera a longish cable, either attached to the camera mic and taped to the side of the camera or plugged in the rear and taped to the back. This way if you need to use the camera mic as a hand held one you will have a long enough cable. If you are using a radio microphone receiver, connect it to the camera by using a long cable tucked and taped under the battery. In an emergency you can use that cable to convert the camera mic into a hand held one.
As camera operators, we use a viewfinder to see what we are doing, we should also use headphones to listen to what we are doing. Normal walkman headphones work well (the ones without head holders). Plug them in the jack-out of the camera, fold them and secure them somewhere on the camera (if you are using a Camera Shoulder Cover this is easily done with a Velcro strap) and whenever you need to monitor the sound, plug them into your ears.
Along with some of the things other's have mentioned, I hope this gave you ( or anyone ) a few ideas to help you think out that next movie.