KNOWING THE BEST GOPRO SETTINGS IS ESSENTIAL
FOR CREATING AMAZING VIDEOS.
At some point you might have questioned whether or not you even had room in your life for Protune.
‘Am I ready for this?’
‘Will I have to do stuff?’
‘Does her family live far enough away?’
In this article, we not only explain why Protune is important for getting the best possible footage, but we teach you how you can quickly implement it into your filming.
Looking for an all-in-one solution to understanding your GoPro? Checkout the Guide to Mastering your GoPro.
HOW GOPRO DEFINES PROTUNE
‘Protune enables you to get much higher quality throughout your post-production workflow. Basically, the main purpose of the ProTune software update is to help you get more dynamic images from your camera than you are currently getting today. We really wanted to meet requests from members of our professional community.’
Essentially, Protune gives us options. And we like that.
Protune has changed several times since it’s inception during the Hero 2 days. It’s now a standard for almost all GoPro’s and can be activated within the GoPro Settings.
INCREASED BITRATE
Perhaps the greatest benefit of Protune is the increased Bitrate. Switching from standard video mode to Protune increases the bitrate from 25mb/s to 35mb/s (depending on the model). This means more data is captured per second while filming, resulting in better overall image quality. And who doesn’t want that?
Protune clips take up more card space!.
NEUTRAL COLOR PROFILE
Protune is about flexibility and that extends into post-production. If you’ve experimented with Protune in the past, then you may have been shocked to see your fancy protune clips look more like faded home video footage. This is because Protune is about flexibility.
Traditionally, the software within your camera will apply color corrections automatically which gives you the popping contrast and saturation we’re use to. When Protune is active however, this Color Profile is tuned wayyyyy back giving us a more neutral bases to start from. If previously, you’ve never done color correction, then activating Protune will definitely give you a reason to!
When it comes to Color Correction, the more neutral the color profile, the greater flexibility you have for color matching clips taken at different time which is essentially when making a video that’s easy on the eyes.
WHITE BALANCE & CAMRAW
Another addition to the Protune Suite is White Balance(WB). For users of DSLR’s this was a welcome site. White Balance is about adjusting the color temperature of your video/image to find true white. If you’ve ever seen a home video of a child sledding in a blue toned wonderland then you know about White Balance. It’s about helping the camera set that color back to true white (snow is a common problem). By default , WB is automatic, and GoPro’s typically do a great job, but with Protune it allows us to fine tune it.
White balance (WB) is the process of removing unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo.
– Plan out your shots before filming.
– Hold on subjects for at least 5 seconds.
– Always keep your back to the primary light source. Or make sure your subject are facing the light!
– The pizza box is acting as a ‘Reflector’, a tool commonly used in photography and video production for directing light effectively. For amateur video, the above rule should keep you from needing a reflector. Although, I guess you could always use a pizza box.
Camera stabilization: With regards to GoPro’s, their tiny, make a lot of noise when handled directly during filming(internal microphone) and otherwise should not be used with a tripod or camera stabilizer. Even resting the camera against the ground or a nearby object is often better than handheld footage. It’s best to always use a tripod or camera stabilizer.
Panning: In photography, panning refers to the rotation in a horizontal plane of a still camera or video camera. Conversely, a tilting shot refers to the rotation in a vertical place of a still camera or video camera. Put simply: side to side movements are called “panning shots” and up and down movements are called “tilting shots”.
Composition: is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art.
