Gopro4 Settings For : Strong Ambient Natural Light (tropics), Dives Less Than 20 M (65 Ft), Wide ?

[afieldofblue]

Hello all,

GoPro newbie here. I'm looking into settings for my new GoPro 4 Silver that i'll be testing out in two months.

It will be tray mounted on top of my current cam housing, and used with an SRP Cyan D filter, as I found the videos quite convincing and don't want to fiddling with multiple filters.

I'll be filming in locations with strong tropical light (Indonesia), blue clear water, wide angle fishy scenes, at a depth of 20 m (65 ft) max, all the action being between 10 and 20 m.

I've had very good results on a compact (lumix TZ10) in these conditions with a UR filter, and also have access to post production on adobe after-effects or gopro studio 2.

I won't be artificial light except on night dives.

So, I've started reading up on the subject, browsing through the 78 threads in this forum, but would like to know what settings people would use / recommend in such conditions.

Protune + native white balance seems highly recommended - so i'll probably try that.

As is an 60 fps rate -
Limiting ISO to 400 also sounds like a plan, not sure about focus options though.

Note sure about video quality, maybe 1080 - 1440 or even 2.7K?

I don't really want a super wide angle as well I guess, and won't be shooting selfies, being not much of a hero - and am still figuring out the "super" modes -

I won't be able to test all of this in water before leaving, unfortunately.

This is the kind of stuff I'll be doing, shot in natural light at less than 20m on the TZ10.


Thanks a bunch

ben

 

[afieldofblue]

After reading up a lot I've got it down to

FOV wide or medium
Color GoPro Color

pro tune on (since i'll be color grading)

white balance native -(or auto since I have a filter?)

720 or 1080 ? but not "super" since i'm not selfieing

60 fps (to reduce shakyness) or 30 fps to save light, card space and computer processor?

ISO limit 400 ? or higher?


Opinions more than welcome welcome!

 

[MattPSI]

I don't have a ton of experience, but I would suggest the following for what ever it is worth:
Hero 4 Black
Quick capture ON
Display auto dim NEVER
Video: 1080 @ 60 fps, wide FOV
Protune on: WB native, color GoPro, ISO max 400
Sharpening: High
Spot meter: OFF

 

[MattPSI]

- I have been using native WB even with a red filter
- I shot a bunch of 2.7K to allow for reframing shots. So far I haven't felt it was worth the hassel after trying it out. Most clips I used for my video did not require reframing. I also think it would be difficult to see much quality improvment once it is downscaled to 1080. I'll probably go back to 1080 for now.

 

[afieldofblue]

Thanks! - I did an update an can now shoot in 48 fps at 1080, so this sounds like a good compromise.

For colors, which woud you recommended for UW ? Color GoPro or Colors flat ?

For iso, 400, and maybe pushing it to 800 when it's dark sounds like it would, on work on paper anyway

 

[MattPSI]

Since you are interested in color grading, you want to set color to Flat. If you primarily want to adjust WB, then set color to GoPro instead. Make sure you have a RAW workflow for color grading in mind before your trip. I think Adobe Premier Pro is one of the only programs other than GoPro Studio that will let you color grade within the CineForm codec. You want to do color grading in CineForm otherwise you lose the much of the benefit of ProTune. So for example, for my last video I shot flat color then used the ProRes default color preset (I believe it is called a LUT) in GoPro Studio, which looks great. Continuing in GoPro Studio, I set WB using the dropper and then export my trimmed clip as very high quality H.264 file to use in iMovie. You actually could do the entire movie without the intermediate step of converting to H.264 in either of the other two programs I mentioned.

As far as shooting in 48 fps, I would suggest instead shoot in 60 fps with Auto Low Light turned ON and ISO 400. Then the camera will automatically choose a frame rate between 30 and 60 fps depending on light conditions. So far, in tropical water with those settings, I have not noticed my frame rate dropping below 60.

 

[afieldofblue]

Great, thanks for the great tips, I'll try that then.

I'm not really sure about color grading, to be honest. Is adjusting color with layers in Adobe After Effects (selective color)
as described here:



really color grading? This is what I have used so far to test things out on a friend's GP clips, and what I intend to use when I get back. Not sure if I should go for flat or GoPro Colors in this case. I guess flat would make more sense, to have access to a more raw like file?

I don't currently have access to Go Pro studio, used the mobile phone app for the firmware update, I'm on a 10.7.5 mac and for silver it's 10.9 and above only, unfortunately...

Otherwise I'm still a bit torn between 1080 and 720 - Seemed to be quite a heated debate at one point.
There any reason to go for 720 on this camera in these conditions?

thanks a bunch,

ben

 

[MattPSI]

Looks like the After Effects program will natively support "Raw" GoPro files. And yes, I believe what you are describing qualifies as color grading. So you should be in good shape. But the time and technical skills required to do it in AE may be beyond the scope of what you need to produce a decent vacation video. I believe you will want a color LUT to create a consistent color look if you choose to use "flat" color. So if you choose to go with flat color, and your friend will let you use a computer, why not simply install GoPro Studio on it (it is free). You will then have the option of using the prores color LUT and a simpler WB dropper tool. And if you want to do advanced color grading, use AE. As far as video resolution, I don't understand why anyone would advocate for 720 over 1080. 1080 for sure.

 

[afieldofblue]

Thanks Matt. I've already used AE to work on the files posted in this thread here:
Uw Go Pro 4 And Color Balance?
so this should be ok. Exporting the files is a bit long, though.

I don't have a friend with a computer I could borrow, sorry if this wasn't clear. I just grabbed a friend's gopro 4 silver footage after we dived together in Papua last February/March, so I could have different pov and also to see what I could do with it colorwise -I don't really know what mode she was shooting in though.
At the moment I don't plan to upgrade the mac as it's my main work computer and I can't risk having software go haywire on me - I might upgrade the wife's though

I tried with an old version of go pro studio (2.0) but it doesn't seem to be compatible with the GP4, unfortunately.

 

[MattPSI]

Ok well it sounds like you have a good starting point on your settings. So maybe do a test shoot in your house or neighborhood. Shoot with ProRes on and compare gopro color vs. native color workflow options. Given that you will only use AE, you will likely save a lot of time by shooting in gopro color, and focusing mostly on adjusting the native WB in post. You may find it easier to make some concrete decisions after shooting and editing some videos "topside" before the big trip.