Tips on GoPro Hero 4 Use?
- Thread starter Talon Six
- Start date
Hey Talon Six, as great of an Action Cam GoPro is, I share your frustrations. I've been through Hero3BL, Hero3+BL, and now Hero4BL.
Here is what I would recommend to mitigate some of these issues:
1) Use Protune. By the time they got to Hero4, you can actually control a lot through Protune, you can manually set your white balance (experiment with CamRaw/Native, which are pretty powerful for post), set color profile (use "Flat", for neutral profile, again, great for post), control sharpness (I use low, you can always sharpen things up in post), and set ISO limit (great indoors and low light). GoPro offers nice instructions and tutorials on this.
2) USE ND filters- GoPro controls exposure through shutter speed/ISO. Using ND filter limits the amount of light entering the lens, and lets your camera set longer shutter speeds, resulting in good motion blur and reducing the "jittery" feel typical for fast shutter speeds. On a really bright day, use ND16, ND8 is good for most other situations. This also helps reduce vibration induced jello. Depending on what gimbal you use, you may need to re-balance it after adding the ND filter.
3) Post-processing and grading. Not sure if you ever worked with raw/protune footage, but it will look milky and lack in color if not edited. When I first tried this, I actually thought that I did something wrong as my footage looked like crap. It does, however contain a lot of data, and is very flexible in post. It is easier for most editing programs to work with MOV files rather than MP4s (I use FCPX). Before importing my video clips to my editing program, I convert them to MOVs using free app MPEG Streamclip.
Some editing programs offer frame blending/optical flow options. These can also help introduce some motion blur and fix jittery videos.
Hope this helps, please, let me know is this helped. Or better yet, let's see some cool videos here!
Thanks Petr. One final question: on those rare occasions when you do fly a GoPro, do you use spot metering?
These GoPro frustrations are among the factors that pushed me to the Inspire - I love having control over all the details of the photo. I love that the Inspire also geotags all the photos with lat/long and altitude; this helps with 3D modeling and orthophotos in Agisoft Photoscan.
I also use FCPX and never knew that it like MOVs over MP4s....thanks for the tip!
These GoPro frustrations are among the factors that pushed me to the Inspire - I love having control over all the details of the photo. I love that the Inspire also geotags all the photos with lat/long and altitude; this helps with 3D modeling and orthophotos in Agisoft Photoscan.
I also use FCPX and never knew that it like MOVs over MP4s....thanks for the tip!
You're welcome, glad it helped. I do not use spot metering, it is inconsistent. I was really happy to get to the Inspire myself, for the excellent remote camera control options it offers. Would you mind sharing some of your work with Agisoft here?
Sure! I'm an Agisoft Photoscan n00b, but here goes:
Here's a model of my roof:
Roof Model by talonsix on Sketchfab
And one of an abandoned fishing shack near the coast:
Poquoson Fishing Center by talonsix on Sketchfab
Here's a model of my roof:
Roof Model by talonsix on Sketchfab
And one of an abandoned fishing shack near the coast:
Poquoson Fishing Center by talonsix on Sketchfab