5 tips for shoot great GoPro videos

Gopro – we all must have heard of this handy little beast before. It’s fair to say that Gopro devices give unmatched performance among the action cameras available in the market. I have been using Gopro Hero 6 for the last 6 months and am loving the experience so far and I have only scratched the surface of what this device is really capable of. So am going to try and put my experience in shooting Gopro videos  in the form of 5 tips, hope it helps you.

Understand the field of view:

This camera is quite famous for it’s wide angle lens which has an increased field of view in turn will help you to cover more area. You can also switch your device to linear mode which has less coverage area. This wide mode is often used by most users and it is for the very good reason of covering much space which is very important while shooting action sports/ sequence.

However we often fail to set the camera in correct angle to shoot our point of interest. Since these are action cameras and most of the time we don’t have the liberty to correct our angle and recapture the action, we have to get the video/ photo first time right. In order to do that always check the field of view of your Gopro camera. In this instance I was using Hero 6 which has the following field of view

Looking at this you can actually assess the field of view of corresponding modes correctly. You can draw an imaginary line in your mind at these angles and by doing so you can try the point of interest to be always within the frame. Well it will take some practice and you have test and try multiple times, but once you get used to it am quite sure you can assess the field of view quite easily and bang on the shot.

Keep the lens clean all the time:

This is very important and most of us often overlook this one. Gopro unlike other standard cameras will be used in adverse conditions. This will often leave dust,  finger print or smudge on the lens and we might not notice it. This has happened to me quite a number of times in the past and end up thinking that settings is the one to blame. After a series of tweaks I figured out that the dust is the culprit here. So now I always carry a soft cloth with me to wipe off the lens before usage. Always saves the day while shooting gopro videos..

Shoot Gopro videos with a theme/ story:

I always enjoyed taking my Gopro and shoot on the go. Let’s admit it, it’s fun way of shooting content. But initially I often find compiling my videos together difficult since my shots were random and didn’t have any story to connect. So it’s always good to have a story in your mind and plan your shots accordingly. Doing this way you will have a clear picture of what you need to shoot and how you need to shoot. Trust me! answering these two questions is most crucial in your film making process.

Explore new angles:

One thing that make Gopro ( or any action cameras for that matter) stand out is the possibility of finding new angles to shoot your content / videos. You shouldn’t be sticking to the primitive or same angle over and over again. Try and explore as many angles as possible even though some angles might turn out really funny or bizarre 😛 . Explore as many as possible and you may be surprised by the outcome.

Invest in Gopro mounts:

If you think shooting Gopro is awesome, you should try shooting with the mounts. Shooting with your hands is not always possible with your Gopro and there comes the mounts. Gopro + mounts can be a killer. A fine example would be Batman ( Gopro ) and his fancy gadgets ( mounts ). Got the importance of mounts eh? Invest in some quality mounts and you will not regret it, your film making and story telling with be much improved. It may not need to be mounts manufactured by Gopro itself which is quite costly ( let’s face it ) but anything compatible with Gopro with build quality will do the job.

That’s all the tip as of now, will attempt to update the article if I got any more tip. Do you have any Gopro tips that you can share with us, I will be willing to hear it from you guys. Let me know in the comments section below.