For those of you who want to shoot better quality video with your GoPros, I’ve got six great tips to help you get started. GoPros are fantastic little cameras that can accomplish a lot, but you really need to know a little bit more than just hitting record if you want to get great quality video. Along with the tips in this video, I encourage you to check out my Introduction to GoPro Video Course here: https://jerad.link/goprocourse
Camera Settings
The first thing you need to understand is your camera settings. If you want to get good video, you’ll need to know what these settings are and how you can use them to improve your footage. I won’t go in to too much detail here, but there’s a full video on the Gear and Light YouTube channel that’s dedicated to explaining how these settings work and how you should be using them. Check out that video here:
GoPros are configured to use automatic mode to try and capture the shot that it thinks looks the best. Unfortunately, if you stick with automatic, you’ll often come away with low quality footage that just doesn’t look professional. To get the most out of your GoPro, you’ll need to learn how to shoot in manual mode. This means that you’ll be in charge of manually changing each setting in order to get the best possible shot. Watch that settings video or check out my course for more information on exactly how to do that.
Understand Lighting
Lighting is everything in photography and videography. If you don’t understand how to use it to your advantage, your shots aren’t going to come out looking great. Pointing your camera directly into the sun, like the screenshot pictured below, will result in a much lower quality image than if you pointed it away and used the sun to help light your shot.
When you’re setting up a shot, think about your environment and use whatever light sources you have to give your GoPro the greatest opportunity to film a great looking shot. The same thing matters if you’re shooting yourself. If there’s a lot of light right behind you, your GoPro is going to expose to that light which will make you look very dark and underexposed in comparison
The point to take away from this is that you need to think about where your lighting is coming from so that you can use it to your advantage.
Filter the Light
When it comes to light, a lot of times you’ll want to add something called an ND filter to further control the light coming into your GoPro’s sensor. An ND filter acts like sunglasses for your GoPro to limit the amount of light that hits the sensor.
This matters because your GoPro needs to be set to specific settings in order to look great. Unfortunately, in bright sunny environments those settings often cause footage to be over exposed and too bright. In these situations, ND filters are vital because they allow you to keep the best possible settings while still maintaining a good exposure.
The ND filter that I most often use is a filter from Polar Pro. You can check out their filters here: https://jerad.link/polarprondsethero9
Stable Mounting
When you mount your GoPro, you need to make sure that it’s secure. Loose mounting will often result in shaky footage. GoPro is getting better and better each year at stabilizing footage, but you can overwork that stabilization if you don’t mount it properly.
In my opinion, I would rather have to compromise the angle of my shot a bit in order to mount the GoPro well than to get an amazing angle but have unusably shaky footage. You need to find a good balance here, but stable mounting should be a top priority for you.
Audio
Having poor quality audio completely takes you out of the experience when you’re watching a video. I would rather have great audio quality and average quality video than to have an amazing video with bad audio. I highly recommend you consider purchasing and using the media mod that GoPro sells for a couple of reasons. The first reason is it comes with a much higher quality microphone. This is a great first step in getting better audio. GoPros media mod is also a better option than other external microphone options on the market because it mounts the most securely to the GoPro. It also comes with a wind screen. The internal mic will have horrible wind noise anytime there is wind or fast movement from the GoPro. The wind screen on the media mod reduces that issue significantly.
Another option that I’ve seen is to use an external microphone that doesn’t mount to the GoPro at all. To minimize the wind issue, you can also be conscious of how much wind there is in your environment and which direction it’s moving. If you know which way the wind is moving, you can choose to move with the wind instead of against it, reducing the amount of wind that is moving into the mic.
Shooting Tips
Another really important tip to maximize the quality of your footage is to focus on your composition. People will often purchase a GoPro and then just point it in the general direction of what’s going on. They may catch the action this way, but it doesn’t make for very interesting or engaging footage. If you’re looking to get a Point-Of-View style shot, you can’t just throw the GoPro on the very top of your helmet. You need to move the GoPro forward so that it moves as closely to how your eyes move as possible. Find a way to mount it right above your eyes because that’s going to look the most natural.
Likewise, if you’re riding a bike, you don’t want to have your GoPro mounted on the very front of the handles. Mounting it on the handles won’t be as immersive for the view as it could be if you mounted it on your head or on your chest. The important thing to consider here is that you should always be thinking about what angle you can shoot at and how you can best mount your GoPro to get the most engaging and immersive footage.
Final Thoughts
Some of the tips I’ve mentioned here will take some practice to get comfortable with, but your footage will increase drastically in quality if you take the time to master these techniques. If you’re interested in learning more about getting the most out of your GoPro, check out these videos on the Gear and Light YouTube channel:
Also, don’t forget to take my GoPro Video Guide course here: https://jerad.link/goprocourse
