GoPro VIDEO MODES Explained
Taking videos on an action camera such as a GoPro for the first time can let you down, or any other action camera, the footage probably didn’t look as good as how you expected them to be, such as in the commercials. You can use GoPro’s video modes and a few tips to achieve the best videos.
Most cameras have multiple settings to mess with which help videographers get great-looking videos, action cameras don’t have many settings, and some settings are better left on automatic, but GoPro does have Protune which gets you access to extra settings and gives you a bit better quality.
GoPro’s video modes are separated into 3 categories: Video, Looping, and Time Lapses. Each video mode has different settings that can be changed. The latest GoPro model can take videos up to 5K, older GoPro’s can take videos up to 4K.
Most cameras have multiple settings to mess with which help photographers get great-looking videos, action cameras don’t have many settings and are better left on automatic, GoPro does have Protune which gets you access to extra settings and gives you a bit better quality.
Video Mode
Video mode is the default mode for videos, it allows us to record videos in different resolutions and framerates. While taking videos you can change different settings to achieve different results.
When using your GoPro for the first time the resolution will be set to 1080p at 60fps with the wide FOV.
If you want to take the best quality pictures you should try shooting flat color and edit them in post-production.
Looping Mode
The looping mode saves a certain time of minutes of video and once the time is reached, the older video is erased.
For example, if we set 5 minutes and we are recording for an hour, when we stop recording we will only have available the last 5 minutes, the remaining 55 minutes will have been automatically erased.
Time Lapse Mode
Time Lapse is a cool effect that makes it look like time is passing fast, it works by taking pictures with a certain interval of time between one shot and another. By doing this, time looks like is going much faster than real-time.
Time Lapse Photo
The Time Lapse photo mode is the classic time-lapse which captures a series of pictures at specified intervals. The intervals are 0.5s, 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s, 30s.
Night Lapse Photo
The Night Lapse photo works like the Time Lapse mode but the shutter of the camera stays on longer to capture more light and get clear night photos.
Time Lapse Video
The Time Lapse video like the Time Lapse photo mode captures pictures at specified intervals producing a video. The intervals are 0.5s, 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s, 30s, 60s.
TimeWarp Video
The TimeWarp video is a feature by GoPro which creates an amazing effect that speeds up your movement up to 2x, 5x, 10x, 15x, or 30x more than normal.
Video Settings
Most action cameras including GoPro allow you to mess with the settings, settings can allow you to get the best results and capture great videos. Since most action cameras are very similar you will probably have these settings as well.
Stabilization
Stabilization is one of the most important settings while recording videos. It helps keep the video stable and smooth.
FOV
FOV stands for Field Of View, GoPro has 4 different options Wide, Medium, Linear, and Narrow. Each FOV is a bit different, from a fisheye look to an average camera look.
RAW Audio
Using the RAW audio allows you to create a separate audio file with .wav format. You can choose from Low, Medium, or High processing of the audio for post-production.
Zoom
The zoom setting like most cameras lets your GoPro zooms in on the footage getting closer shots.
Microphone Settings
GoPro allows you to change between stereo audio capture and wind noise filtering to attain the best audio sound
Protune
To access GoPro’s settings you need to enable Protune. Protune is an advanced configuration that allows the camera to save much more information, thanks to Protune we have more advanced tools and can obtain better results of color, sharpness, exposure, or ISO.
Protune Settings
With the protune option unlock we get more settings to mess around with.
Shutter
The shutter controls the time during which light arrives inside the camera. The shutter options are Auto, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000.
White Balance
The white balance controls the temperature of your photos and videos. Lower values such as 3000K will give your photos much warmer tones and higher values like 6500K produce cooler tones.
Sharpness
The Sharpness consists of increasing the apparent sharpness of the image, using software or the firmware of the camera itself, the details will appear more clear, GoPro comes with 3 settings: Low, Medium, and High, I suggest not using High since it will look too sharp and not too good, the best settings are Medium for those who don’t want to do any post-production and Low if you want to sharpen the image later.
EV Comp
EV Comp is the exposure or brightness of the photo, with GoPro you can adjust up to from -2.0 to +2.0, I find that 0 to -0.5 give the best results.
ISO
The ISO setting sets the GoPro sensor sensitivity to light. On the GoPro, the ISO ranges from 100 to 6400, the higher the ISO setting the more grain/noise it will produce in the image so it should only be used for low-light such as night setting even though I still don’t recommend going at the max.
Color
GoPro comes with 2 Color configurations, Flat and GoPro color, GoPro color gives great results for those who don’t want to do any post-production and the Flat profile is great to work with on post-production.
Choosing the Best Settings
To access GoPro’s settings you need to enable Protune. Protune is an advanced configuration that allows the camera to save much more information, thanks to Protune we have more advanced tools and can obtain better results of color, sharpness, exposure, or ISO. If you’re more familiar with photography the Protune on GoPro cameras would be the equivalent of RAW mode on SLR cameras.
An advantage that GoPro has over most other cameras is that it’s very easy to carry anywhere and use in situations where you cant use another camera. There are many accessories you could use for underwater photography we recommend checking out this 50 in 1 accessory-kit by clicking here.
- FOV depends on what you’re going for, we recommend using Wide for good resolution and image quality, but you can also shoot linear for more typical camera looks.
- Stabilization I recommend turning stabilization on Auto since GoPro’s Hypersmooth will do a great job at keeping your videos stable.
- Shutter on Auto
- EV Comp 0.5
- White Balance Auto
- ISO Min 100
- ISO Max 400
- Sharpness Low
- Color Flat
- RAW Audio if you want the RAW audio of your video you can set it, if not leave the RAW Audio on Off
- Mics Stereo
Video Resolutions
Like most sports cams GoPro lets you access the video resolutions, for maximum quality, you will normally record in 4K, but if you are looking to get slow-motion shots, you will need to lower your resolution.
We hope this blog has been useful and provided the answers you were looking for, if you liked this blog check out our tips on how to get better GoPro pictures (Click Here).
