So you’ve bought your first GoPro and you’re excited to start shooting action videos. Not so fast! Lots of things can ruin a video or turn it into a beautiful work of art that people will love to watch.
In this article you will learn ten important tips for recording videos with your new GoPro action camera.
1. Use the best resolution and frame rate
Choosing the right resolution and frame rate for your situation can be difficult unless you are an experienced photographer. The main issue that should influence your choice is what kind of videos you shoot with your GoPro Hero.
resolution: Resolution is the number of pixels (individual color dots) packed into each frame of your video. The highest resolution for years was 1080 (Full HD), i.e. 1080 pixels vertically and 1920 pixels horizontally. Today, 4K cameras can pack 2,160 pixels vertically and 3,840 pixels horizontally. A higher resolution results in videos with much more clarity.
frame rate: The frame rate indicates how many frames are captured every second when you record a video. When objects are moving quickly in front of the camera, a higher frame rate means there is less blur during that activity.
You might think you would just set the GoPro to the highest possible resolution and frame rate. Unfortunately, if you do this, your battery and memory card won’t last very long and your videos will have to be very short.
Instead, choose the resolution and frame rate for the type of video you’re recording.
- Low-motion activities like vlogging or walking: 1080p and 30 fps.
- Hike, run or bike: 2.7K and 60 fps.
- High-motion sports, vehicle-mounted or drone-mounted: 4K and 60 fps.
The settings above will save battery and storage space on your camera. However, if you still want higher resolution or motion sharpness, you can go further up the resolution and frame rate, at the expense of memory and battery drain.
2. Activate stabilization and slowly move the GoPro
If you’re trying to save battery and storage space with more moderate resolution and frame rate settings, you can compensate by trying to move the GoPro as little as possible.
For example, if you’re hiking or running, using a selfie stick and stabilizing the camera while you’re holding it will reduce movement and decrease the likelihood of video blur.
You can also use the built-in stabilization in GoPro settings to compensate for camera movements. This increases battery drain slightly, but the feature is worth it.
To enable stabilization, launch your GoPro and tap the stabilization icon on the right side of the screen.
Use the slider on the right to select either one default or High.
The highest stabilization setting uses more battery, but High or Standard provide enough compensation for movement without draining the battery too quickly.
3. Use a tripod for still video recording
If you’re trying to capture a scene and can’t bring yourself to hold the camera steady enough, even with stabilization turned on, a tripod can come in handy.
Many selfie sticks double as a tripod, so you don’t need to take any extra accessories with you. Set up the tripod on the ground or other surface and record the video for 10 to 15 seconds.
You will find that a tripod allows the camera to remain perfectly still and capture the clearest images and resolution in the entire still scene video clip.
4. Choose the right accessory for the job
The GoPro mount works with a long list of awesome accessories that allow you to attach your GoPro to almost anything. When you buy complete accessory packs from Amazon, you get every mount you need for every situation.
- Head and chest straps: Ideal for hands-free exploration
- wrist strap: Use your arm to position your camera at any angle
- Floating handle: Safely use your GoPro while swimming or snorkeling
- handlebar mount: Perfect for cycling or attaching to an external pole on your vehicle
- suction cup: Stick your GoPro to a hard surface to quickly capture still images
- tripod: Good for recording videos that require the camera to remain as still as possible
- selfie stick: The most versatile solution to position the camera at any angle by hand or to record yourself
Which mount you choose depends heavily on the activity you want to record. When you choose the right mount, you’re sure to capture the perfect scene.
5. Use a media mod with wireless microphones
Another downside to the GoPro is that the built-in microphone system isn’t the best. You must be close to the GoPro for your voice to be loud and clear. Even then, you may need to adjust the mic volume in post-production just to make sure viewers can hear you.
Thankfully, GoPro offers a valuable hardware add-on called the GoPro Media Mod.
The Media Mod is a frame that mounts around your camera and plugs directly into the side port. It features a directional microphone that reduces ambient noise (like wind) and improves the clarity of your voice.
There are a couple of cold shoe mounts that you can attach lights or (and we recommend) a wireless microphone transmitter for the highest quality voice recording. There is a 3.5mm microphone jack to connect this external microphone setup.
If you vlog a lot, buying this mod will improve your video quality immensely and help increase your channel subscriptions.
6. Caution in low light
One of the noticeable weaknesses of the GoPro camera is that it doesn’t perform very well in low light conditions. In low-light scenes, you’ll occasionally see white stripes flickering across the scene.
If you have expert knowledge of camera settings, you can adjust ISO settings to manually reduce these visual artifacts. However, these need to be changed every time you shoot in low light.
A quicker fix is to set up better lighting in your shooting area. You can use one of the cold shoe mounts on the media mod mentioned above to attach a light to your camera.
7. Configure settings to save battery power
It’s easy to drain a lot of battery power when using a GoPro camera. As mentioned in the previous section on resolution and frame rate, if you set your camera to the highest quality settings, your battery won’t last very long.
You can adjust the following settings to extend your GoPro’s battery life:
- Lower resolution and frame rate
- switch stability (HyperSmooth) to default
- Sentence light-emitting diodes setting in the settings everything off
- Lower Automatic shutdown attitude to 5 minutes Or less
- Lower Rear screen saver to 1 minute
- Sentence Front screen options to Status only
Many of these settings have little to no effect on the overall quality of your video, and adjusting them will keep your battery going much longer than expected.
8. Film very short scenes
Even with adjusted settings to save battery power and microSD card space, GoPro videos consume a lot of resources. Also, longer video clips require a lot more work for editing during post-production.
A far more efficient way to create videos from GoPro clips is to trim those clips. Here are some tips on how to do this:
- Script your entire video and organize it into scenes
- Plan your scene carefully before launching your GoPro camera
- Set your GoPro on a tripod (if you’re using one) before you start the camera
- Start recording and immediately go through your scene as planned
- Provide enough buffer video (e.g. smile when you’re done speaking) so you can fade or fade it to the next scene.
By capturing clean and short scenes with your GoPro, you can significantly reduce the time it takes to create your final, polished video.
9. Sync your scenes to your music
When you’re trying to produce quality video with your GoPro, you may want to add music to it. The best subscription services to download copyright-free music to use in your videos are Soundstripe and Epidemic Sound.
Adding music to your scenes gives the video a more cinematic and emotional atmosphere. However, it is important to properly add music to your videos.
The secret to doing this well is to align the beat pattern with your scene transitions.
Identify the time it takes for the text to transition naturally, and align your scene transitions with those lyrical transitions. Typically, you can use the evenly spaced beat pattern in the song track to align your scene transitions.
10. Do not attempt close-up photography
Another weakness of the GoPro is that it’s not the greatest when it comes to focusing on close objects. If you have visions of capturing beautiful macro videos (close-up shots of small objects), the GoPro camera is not the right option.
The GoPro camera is designed for action, motion and cinematographic landscapes. However, placing the camera lens too close to something like a flower or insect will produce a blurry object.
You can still capture scenes fairly close to objects, but they’ll only come into focus if you hold the camera at least 4 or 5 inches away.
Create amazing videos with your GoPro
As you can see, many things go into making sure your final videos are of high quality. However, there are some tradeoffs you have to make in order to save battery life and storage space.
By following the tips above, you can enjoy the best of both worlds. You can make the most of your camera’s battery life and storage space, but also produce high-quality videos that your viewers will love.
