How to make GoPro footage look better

Nick

Nick

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Joined
Aug 9, 2007
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Alright, I bought a GoPro, went out and shot a bunch of video, and I'm not digging it. My #1 issue is shake, #2 is the funky white balance issues when it gets pointed upwards. Anyone have any tips on shake reduction or other things you do to make the GoPro footage more useable?
 
What FPS are you shooting at? Mine isn't always the best, but I'm shooting at 720p and 60 fps. Other than that I haven't really dug into the specifics of the settings on mine.

I personally need a new lense cover now though because there is one spot that is barely dinged, but it shows up big time when light hits my camera directly.
 
I've been shooting at 30fps. My first outing I left the res at their weird squarish default of 1280 x 960. I've since changed it to 1920 x 1080. I guess my biggest gripe at the moment is figuring out how to make it a bit less shaky. I tried using Adobe After Effects but it couldn't handle it. Might try running it through plain old iMovie next...

I guess ultimately the answer might also be a better way to mount it. I'm thinking on the head is not the best.

Here's a little snippet of the video I'm working on from Southern Baptist Canyon. I sped up some sections and slowed some down. Obviously the sped up stuff seems a bit more jittery but otherwise it's just too slow to watch but I still wanted to show what it was like to hop through that arch, walk across the pool and rap off the edge...

 
I think you need to invest in a less shakey head.... I would also be willing to test it out for you and record some road rides for winter training on the bike rollers :)...
 
nick said:
Here's a little snippet of the video I'm working on from Southern Baptist Canyon. I sped up some sections and slowed some down. Obviously the sped up stuff seems a bit more jittery but otherwise it's just too slow to watch but I still wanted to show what it was like to hop through that arch, walk across the pool and rap off the edge...
Click to expand...

Damn that looks awesome. I'm assuming you're wearing a helmet in this picture? I wonder if the helmet has any extra affect on the shake affect? I'm also assuming you're being very careful not to allow your head to shake too much?

I haven't edited a ton on my GoPro, but the stuff I have edited I try to keep my clip segments to around 4-8 seconds maximum, then I cross fade into another section, even if it's from the same vantage point so the appearance isn't always too shaky. This avoids you having to speed things up and causing more of a shake effect. Maybe try that out?

I think the video looks about what I'd expect from something mounted to your head. It could be that you are your own worse critic?

Lastly, give the 60 fps thing a try. You'll lower the quality to the 720p, but I honestly don't see a huge difference (others might however?)
 
Also, I try to avoid mounting it to my head as much as possible. I use my extention pole while hiking, etc. as much as possible. One of the guys that joined us on the Subway in August had his mounted to his treking pole. I thought the quality of his footage was pretty good:

 
Tyler said:
I'm assuming you're wearing a helmet in this picture? I wonder if the helmet has any extra affect on the shake affect? I'm also assuming you're being very careful not to allow your head to shake too much?
Click to expand...

Yes wearing a helmet, no, probably not being too careful to keep my head steady. It was my first weekend wearing one around so I didn't realize how much the shake would show. I think my canyoneering helmet may be particularly prone to shakiness because it's never all that tight on my head.

Tyler said:
It could be that you are your own worse critic?
Click to expand...

Always a good possibility.

Tyler said:
Lastly, give the 60 fps thing a try. You'll lower the quality to the 720p, but I honestly don't see a huge difference (others might however?)
Click to expand...


I'm not sure how 60fps would help? I've played with 60fps on my SLR and the video kinda made me sick unless I slowed it waaaaay down. I'll give it a shot though.

Tyler said:
Also, I try to avoid mounting it to my head as much as possible. I use my extention pole while hiking, etc. as much as possible. One of the guys that joined us on the Subway in August had his mounted to his treking pole. I thought the quality of his footage was pretty good:
Click to expand...

Wow dude. I've never seen that pool even remotely that full, even a few days after they reopened it during high runoff last year. The pole looks really good. Hey, lostlandscapes , how did you like the footage you shot with your camera mounted on your XShot in the Lower Black Box? I bought the trekking pole mount for my gopro but haven't put it to use yet.
 
I'm actually working on those edits right now. I don't know. Don't really notice enough of a difference right off the bat to think it warrants carrying (and thus sacrificing a hand). But then again, it was the Lower Black Box, one of the more unstable environments around. The few shots that I was able to take while I was still do seem to have a little added stability however.
 
Here's one I did while hiking through a side canyon of Smith Fork. I have made a little mount that I can clip to the shoulder strap of my backpack, but I think I was just holding this in my hand because the slot had gotten too narrow to wear the daypack. I have some other footage from a head mount of a paintball game, but I wasn't sure you guys wanted to watch that! I don't think it shakes too much. I didn't think yours shook too much, either. If anything, though, I agree that speeding it up makes the shake more obvious.

 
Awesome looks great nick!
 
The youtube version with the anti shake looks good except for the edges moving. I use mine on my head quite frequently. I am just very conscientious of not moving my head a lot fast. I bet the chest mount would help reduce the amount of shake in your videos. If you're wearing a backpack you could put it on a tripod/monopod strapped vertically to your pack.
 
Ugh... I swear I'm never shooting video again. I swear I've spent more time working on the video from just the first day of last weekend's trip to Zion than I've spent on my last 10 trip reports combined! Biggest lesson learned so far; shooting from the head is a bad idea.

2/3 of the way done with Fat Man's Misery... then I just have Keyhole, Pine Creek and Mystery left to process. :facepalm:
 
nick said:
Ugh... I swear I'm never shooting video again. I swear I've spent more time working on the video from just the first day of last weekend's trip to Zion than I've spent on my last 10 trip reports combined! Biggest lesson learned so far; shooting from the head is a bad idea.

2/3 of the way done with Fat Man's Misery... then I just have Keyhole, Pine Creek and Mystery left to process. :facepalm:
Click to expand...

As for canyons yeah the video is less then desirable. Ton of work wading through all the footage. If I ever get my computer back I can begin on mine. I am still way back in May when it comes to Gopro footage.... sigh
 
Hey There, I was doing some research on my go pro and found this site and thought I would share some things about stabilization with you. If you are doing things like rappelling where your going to want do stabilization I would film in higher resolution but the edit in smaller resolution. For example I would film in 1080 put the project in After effects or final cut pro x and add the stabilization feature. After you do this it will look like the You tube version above with the black bars being all over the place. what you would do next is then create a project that will be 720. put your now stabilized 1080 version in the 720 version . The 1080 version is much bigger than 720 version so you will have to scale it down only scale it down enough to get rid of the black bars you end up with a stable clean version of your project. I hope that makes some sense. I am at work but later on this weekend I might take your video from youtube and play with it to show you.
 
shane said:
put your now stabilized 1080 version in the 720 version . The 1080 version is much bigger than 720 version so you will have to scale it down only scale it down enough to get rid of the black bars you end up with a stable clean version of your project. I hope that makes some sense. I am at work but later on this weekend I might take your video from youtube and play with it to show you.
Click to expand...
excellent post - also worth noting that the new gopro allows you to shoot in 2.7k, which after stabilization will still be full 1080p - a nice feature for sure.
 
shane said:
For example I would film in 1080 put the project in After effects or final cut pro x and add the stabilization feature.
Click to expand...

What about for those of us that don't have final cut or After effects? I just use iMovie '11 and I'm a relative novice. Do you happen to know if these functions are available in imovie?
 
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