How to How to GoPro.... Bible

Minlak

Minlak

custom titis
So I have been bitten by the GoPro bug again and I thought it would be nice to have a section that we can chat all things GoPro. Somewhere that we can share and guide each other on what has been working and what hasn't. Two of the biggest issues to resolve with your GoPro footage is the compression ratio YouTube applies to your videos. This is what leaves you scratching your head as to why your shiny 4k video you took hours to upload still looks grainy and pixelated. The second is the horrible wind noise.

The first thing is ditch the wind noise so you can hear your video. I actually use a fake moustache cut into pieces and stuck over the microphone holes. i am in the process of making a better cover from fluffy material. Ultimately they suggest using an external mic but I like this idea so far and the audio isn't terrible.
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The second thing to know is that YouTube has preferred settings for you to upload with. however these settings may not be in the best interest of you just Youtube. I found this guy Loam Ranger and found his information the easiest to follow in getting a good video uploaded. it turns out one of the biggest mistakes you can make is letting your GoPro decide what settings to use. you get a far better video result by post editing your footage then uploading to combat some of the YouTube bastardisation of your footage.

This is part 1 that sets up the settings. he talks about gimbals and stuff and I am not using one but still using the same settings on my GoPro Hero 7 Black. My footage has improved 10 fold on what lands on my chanell now.


This is part 2 he talks editing. The principals are the same no matter what software you use but I am really liking resolve and its free https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/au/products/davinciresolve


So let me know tips tricks hints ideas. feel free to post your channel we should all subscribe to each other it costs nothing and only helps ourselves out.
 
Yeah, the youtube compression thing is what gets me! I only record in 1080 but upload still seems hit or miss with youtube.
I also seem to find different devices play the same youtube clip at different quality?
Or even the same device has different results. I will check one of my clips on my computer and it will look rubbish (looks fine on other devices), but then play something like the your example above on the same computer and it looks great?
 
Chriso_29er said:
Yeah, the youtube compression thing is what gets me! I only record in 1080 but upload still seems hit or miss with youtube.
I also seem to find different devices play the same youtube clip at different quality?
Or even the same device has different results. I will check one of my clips on my computer and it will look rubbish (looks fine on other devices), but then play something like the your example above on the same computer and it looks great?
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The different devices has a bit to do with mobile vs full websites as well as actual screen size and pixels. My computer screen is crazy hi-quality and I really notice the compression where in the tv it looks great.
It has a lot to do with the information you give youtube to process. One of the biggest mistakes is letting GoPro decide settings. Even if you don’t want to post process changing some of the settings means you get better light and contrast. I have found anything I upload direct to YouTube comes out crap too. The rendering process prior to upload is very important.
 
I tried a heap of different settings in an attempt to get half decent footage on YouTube but in the end I gave up and paid for Vimeo. Where there are lots of close trees and winding trail Youtube struggles. Add any glare and it is plain shit!

I uploaded some footage to YouTube of anATV adventure in the desert using similar settings and the footage was perfect! No trees, less bends!

This is some footage of Mill Creek I uploaded to vimeo.
 
Anf if you’re interested in in stable footage, get a gimbal. Hero 7 stabilisation is a hack solution to a gimbal. There’s plenty of side by side reviews out there proving a gimbal to be superior.
 
ChrisJC said:
Anf if you’re interested in in stable footage, get a gimbal. Hero 7 stabilisation is a hack solution to a gimbal. There’s plenty of side by side reviews out there proving a gimbal to be superior.
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I have discussed a gimbal and at this stage I am quite liking the feeling of movement from the native GoPro. The 7 still does a half decent job and at this stage that’s what I am going for. But you are 100% correct the only real stabilisation comes in gimbal form.
 
Minlak said:
I have discussed a gimbal and at this stage I am quite liking the feeling of movement from the native GoPro. The 7 still does a half decent job and at this stage that’s what I am going for. But you are 100% correct the only real stabilisation comes in gimbal form.
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Hero 7 does a good job and for many it’s all you need. The hype from Gopro about it being s gimbal killer is a bit misleading!
 
This is the footage from around 5yrs ago (on my personal page)when I just could not get it to be clear. (I strongly recommend you turn the sound off I dont remeber even adding the music let alone what it is)


This is latest footage I took now (on my Riding Sweep page) I am getting my head around settings. I am doing a tour series of my local trails as a way of learning what I want to do and how to do it.


I now uses a chest mount as it is much more stable and as I said above I like some of the vibration being there to represent movement. But as I said learning
 
If you decide to get gimbalised, it’s worth looking at the Stuntman chest harness. It’s a far more stable platform than gopro chesty and others; especially when you use a gimbal.
 
Minlak said:
This is the footage from around 5yrs ago (on my personal page)when I just could not get it to be clear. (I strongly recommend you turn the sound off I dont remeber even adding the music let alone what it is)


This is latest footage I took now (on my Riding Sweep page) I am getting my head around settings. I am doing a tour series of my local trails as a way of learning what I want to do and how to do it.


I now uses a chest mount as it is much more stable and as I said above I like some of the vibration being there to represent movement. But as I said learning
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The quality is pretty good! You notice how is starrts to pixelate when the sun is in front of to the side. Not much you can do about that ime,

If you know Youtubes limitations and mess around with your setup you can get some decent footage; although I never quite nailed it. Something obviously has to give when a 2gb file id compressed to a few hundred mb!
 
ChrisJC said:
The quality is pretty good! You notice how is starrts to pixelate when the sun is in front of to the side. Not much you can do about that ime,

If you know Youtubes limitations and mess around with your setup you can get some decent footage; although I never quite nailed it. Something obviously has to give when a 2gb file id compressed to a few hundred mb!
Click to expand...
Yeah my upload files currently are 2-3gb and I can do better this is still my learning curve. But YouTube itself has limitations that are difficult to get around period.
 
wkkie said:
Are there any good mobile editing apps? For Android?
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I don't know if any are good but I have heard of this one.

1. QUIK
Free editing app for Android and iOS - This is one of the most convenient and easy to use app in GoPro's arsenal. Quik is a free application which would automatically create nicely edited videos within just a few minute's time. The editing process is as simple as it can possible get; all you have to do is selecting the videos or pictures which you would like to show in the movie from the library and Quik is going to do the rest. However you can only use the images and videos which are stored in your phone's library. You can also mix the GoPro footage with those of your phone’s if you want.
 
Thanks @Minlak I'll give that a run.

At the moment I'm running an Insta360 one and only just started playing around with it.

This is a quick run from the other day. It was mounted on top of the helmet. It was just thrown together quick and I didn't really use any of the 360 features for it.
 
About my only input to the thead is how to really stuff it up lol.

This is a good example of what not to do!
Chest mount pointed too low and a dark day = really crappy youtube upload.


Same camera/settings, nicer brighter day but not too much sun with the camera pointed much higher on the chesty.
Youtube seems to have liked this one better.
 
Great idea for a thread!

Love Resolve, wasted many hours and dollars on premiere pro to no avail. Videos are still shit but at least I can actually get something cohesive together now.

I invested a lot of time in Android video editing, the reality is you're never going to get a great product. The processing power just isn't there, your battery will die very quickly any time you try to do anything, and you are super limited with what you can do. Something like GoPros Quik is about as complicated as you can get, and even that isn't great.

I'm still running a hero5 session. I'd love a gimbal, but TBH it's hard to spring that coin when a hero7 can get close through software and be an all in one solution. The gimbal would be one extra thing to stuff around with, and nobody really watches my videos anyway apart from me so the extra snazzy footage ain't worth it in my opinion. YMMV
 
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