Improve your GoPro pictures

Your first pictures on your GoPro or any other action camera probably didn’t look as good as how pictures look in the commercials. There is a couple of secrets which could help you get to that level.

Most cameras have multiple settings to mess with which help photographers get great looking pictures, 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.

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. All of its accessories also make it stand out and get unique pictures that you should use to your advantage and improve your results in both photography and video.

Chances are if you’re looking for GoPro picture tips and blogs like this, you already have a GoPro, but if you’re looking to buy a GoPro you can check out our review on the Hero 9 (Click Here). Or, you want to understand how to take amazing GoPro camera photos and action shots.

In this blog post, your gonna find out everything you need to know about improving your pictures and standing out from everyone else using action cameras such as GoPro.

Best Settings for Pictures

Most action cameras including GoPro allow you to mess with the settings, in this blog were are going to go with GoPro’s settings but since most action cameras are very similar you will probably have these settings as well.

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.

Best Settings for Pictures

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.
SuperPhoto analyzes the scene to be photographed and intelligently chooses the most suitable enhancement process. We recommend turning it off since it will slow down taking pictures and will look great without it and much better if you choose to edit pictures in post.
Raw On
Shutter on Auto
EV Comp 0.5
White Balance Auto
ISO Min 100
ISO Max 400
Sharpness Low
Color Flat

Using the RAW format basically reduces all kinds of post-production carried out inside the camera to have the purest possible video and getting the best quality. With the camera not producing any auto postproduction the color profile will be less vibrant and less sharp, this is great for people wanting to edit pictures in postproduction or using presets (Check out great presets below).

The Shutter and White Balance are best left in Auto since the camera does a good job of getting the best settings. 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.

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. At day it’s best to leave it 100 to 400 max.

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 with Lightroom or Photoshop.

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 on Lightroom or Photoshop.

Underwater Settings

Shooting underwater isn’t much different so you don’t have to change most of the settings. If you use SuperPhoto your underwater pictures won’t come up as good since there is a delay and the picture will come up blurry, so I recommend keeping SuperPhoto off underwater.

When shooting RAW underwater there will also be a small delay but the pictures will come up with the maximum detail so try to be still when shooting, not using RAW underwater will also give you good results.

If you are capturing a faster-moving object or animal and want to get the perfect picture try using the Burst with the same settings.

Sports Settings

To get the best action shots you want to get the most pictures possible to get the perfect photo, for this reason, SuperPhoto and RAW won’t work as well.

To get the best pictures sports pictures use the Burst with the same picture settings as above, the Burst comes with different settings: 3/1s, 5/1s, 10/1s, 10/2s, 10/3, 30/1s, 30/2s, 30/3s, and 30/6s.

Tips and Tricks

Now that you have the best settings to work with when taking pictures here are some tips and tricks to improve pictures in other ways such as composition or best times to shoot pictures.

There are many reasons why a picture can look great or bad, as, with any area of photography, timing and composition are key in photos taken with GoPro. All good photography comes from planning your shot.

Action cameras don’t do very well in low light so try to take pictures in bright sunlight. You can play with different angles of the position of the sun to obtain more unique images. Don’t be afraid to get special angles.

When taking photos near water make sure your lens doesn’t get dirty with waterdrops or the mark of your finger in the middle of the image, a waterdrop mark in the middle of the picture can ruin your perfect photo.

When shooting with RAW or taking a picture in general try and use a tripod for maximum stability.

Another useful tip when going somewhere with a GoPro is to carry extra batteries so you can quickly exchange the first battery for a fully charged one. You will also need a good SD card to store all your pictures and have enough space.

If you are taking pictures underwater when diving or snorkeling deep, ND Filters might be a good option for you (Learn more about ND Filters here).

Presets

With Lightroom Presets you can quickly and easily improve your picture, Presets is a configuration of settings from Lightroom so you can achieve a certain look you are going for, for example getting rid of the greens in an underwater picture.

Check out our Presets by clicking here!