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Photography Tips for Using the GoPro Hero 7
By Mark Jessen - News Published: , Last Updated:
This is a guest post from @jakerichtravels.
We’ve all seen that Australia’s Most Successful Dating App Revealed shot of a dude jumping off a cliff into some blue ass water that seems to make you question two things; how come you’re not currently cliff jumping and why aren’t your GoPro photos looking anything remotely close to his?
Here are a couple of tips from Instagrammer Jake Rich to help you capture those GoPro bangers, so next time you’re out on an adventure you’ll know which buttons to push.
Lighting
GoPro cameras work best in full sun, think the middle of the day or anytime after sunrise or before sunset. That being said if you are shooting in low light, a rad GoPro image is still possible but let’s save that for another article.
Burst Photo Mode
Most GoPro action shots that you’ll see on Instagram would have been captured using this setting. It’s super simple, you have three options, 30 photos over six seconds, 30 photos over three seconds, or 30 photos over two seconds. Set the camera to burst photo mode and select the appropriate burst based on the action you’re about to perform.
If you’re taking a jump shot of a mate or jumping off a cliff with your selfie stick, I’d recommend using 30 over three, short enough to capture the action whilst offering you a selection of images to choose from during that particular burst. Give yourself a couple of attempts at this, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Time-lapse Photo Mode
An alternative to using the burst setting is time-lapse photo mode. Set your GoPro up on a photo time-lapse which captures a range of photos over time. The beauty of time-lapse photo mode paired is that you can capture epic GoPro photos without any help from your mates. Set the camera up on a bench or a tripod and trigger the GoPro to start taking time-lapse photos. Again there is a range of time intervals which you can choose from.
For action photography, the shorter the interval the more options you’ll have. If you’re capturing a jump shot, I usually select 0.5 seconds. My process would be to frame up the shot, GoPro set up on a tripod, trigger the time-lapse and perform the action in the middle of the frame. Again give yourself a number of attempts and performing the action as you won’t always nail the timing on the first attempt.
PRO TIP: if you set the GoPro time-lapse to five seconds or longer it will allow you to capture RAW images, anything under five-second intervals only allows for JPEG images to be captured. Why RAW? Editing RAW allows for more flexibility but only choose this if you’re serious about photo editing and archiving your GoPro photos.
Selfie Stick
There’s a number of different options out there when it comes to selfie sticks. GoPro themselves offer the GoPro Shorty, the three-way tripod and the El-Grande. GoPro is best known for its wide-angled field of view, it also performs and looks best when capturing the action with this aesthetic.
My personal preference for dominant GoPro selfies is to use the GoPro shorty selfie stick. The closer you are (or the subject is) to the camera, the better the quality & general composition the subject will look. If the subject is stretched out too far, the camera tends to lose focus and your IG feed won’t pop.
Keep it tight and you’ll be cheerin’.
Buy it Here (US) Buy it Here (AU)
General FAQ
When using the GoPro Hero 7 it is important to get good lighting, the GoPro takes the best pictures in full sun. It also helps to use the special settings on ythe GoPro such as burst photo mode and time-lapse photo mode.
The quality of GoPro images in great for brightly lit outdoor shots. When using the GoPro indoors or in darker outdoor settings the color balance may be a little too cool and may need editing later.
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