4 Tips to improve your action camera footage

It seems relatively easy to use action cameras. All you really need to do is strap it to your cranium, press the record button, and start shooting away. Then why do we sometimes feel that our video footages don’t turn out the way we intended them to. Well, the reason is that professional cameramen who regularly work with GoPro or other action cameras, follow certain methods and incorporate valuable tips while shooting their videos. A few such experienced cameramen were asked about their shooting procedures and other useful pieces of information that could help others while using action cameras. They were gracious enough to share their inputs with us.

Affinity Towards the Pole: While using action cameras, you need to be versatile and always ready to adapt. Fixing a small piece of rubber to the camera for an enhanced grip is a neat trick that provides you with unhindered versatility. Now just stick your hand out in front, and the camera will successfully capture your visage, a substantial portion of your torso and also the act you just performed. If you’re skiing or rollerskating, use the rubber grip to attach the camera to your side and effectively capture the stunning effects of your skis or skates carving into the snow. Another neat trick that you can adopt while doing this is to just throw your arm backwards. This gives you a stylish follow shot of your approach and environment. Now if you attach your action camera with the affixed rubber grip to a pole, then the angles shot will appear even more stunning. You’d also be able to shoot way more of your own anatomy and the path you’re traveling upon.

Verify Your Angle: When using action cameras to shoot others besides yourself, always aim a tad lower than what you think is an appropriate angle. This is done because action cameras are generally used to shoot sportspeople such as skiers, mountaineers, ice skaters, and swimmers in the midst pf performing their tasks. Most of the action performed during these tasks occurs below the knees, so it does make sense to lower your angle while shooting. When it comes to mounting the camera on your noggin, fix it directly in the center of the noggin and angle it just lower than your eyes while looking straight in front. Since your head is bound to move aplenty during the action, you’ll be guaranteed a good mixture of video shots. Another useful but grossly overlooked method of shooting with action cameras is the chest mount. More often than not the chest mount proves to be of greater use than the normal head mount, as you’re already viewing your surroundings with your chest. Plus, the lowered position of the mount easily captures skiing, mountaineering, and skating activity, while the sufficiently high angle of the camera effectively captures the surrounding ambiance. What’s more, if you’re into skiing, then a chest mount also enables you to include your hands and poles within the footage.

Narrow Minded Approach: While shooting 1080p videos at 60 fps, always choose medium angles, since they facilitate lesser lens distortion and there aren’t any unnecessary shutter effects due to the high frame rate. This offers a great technique to shoot others with an action camera. However, if you are using a head mount to shoot, then it’d be wiser to switch to a wide angle. If you are shooting at 2.7k frames at 30 fps, stick to a wide angle mode. Since the resolution is so high and you are still shooting at the standard 30 fps rate, the videos can still be cropped down to 1080p for greater stability, ensuring lesser losses in footage. Shooting at wide angles with such high resolutions also works wonders in low light conditions. And finally, always select narrow angles when capturing 720p videos at 120 fps. The 120 fps rate provides 4x or 5x slow motion shots during playback at 30 fps and 24 fps respectively, while the narrow angle at this rate negates lens distortion. Never veer away from the above field of views while shooting at different resolutions, and you shouldn’t face any inconveniences while capturing and editing your desired videos

Be Ready to Hack: On account of the minuscule and lightweight structure of action cameras, it’s relatively to combinedly hack an enclosure of them. What really comes handy in such times is duct tape, which also proves useful when using a DIY mount. Another cool look of late is the 360° shot, wherein you fix a swivel mount to your helmet and capture the action from any angle, which ensures that the view ultimately points back at you. Care needs to be taken to ensure that the swivel mount is a bit flexible, in case you fall. Too stiff a mount can prove precarious and injure your neck in the event that you do tumble over.

Even though, shooting with action cameras is one of the easiest methods of capturing all the action, it still requires a degree of acumen, skill, a proper methodology, and knowledge of some valuable tips to capture better looking videos. Following the above steps would go a long way in manifesting your techniques into becoming a better action camera user.

Via - Gizmodo