- I've been documenting my adventures with a GoPro
for the last seven years.
I started out taking some pretty crappy photos,
but along the way,
I've improved and found a skillset that I'm really proud of.
Oftentimes, I choose to use a GoPro
over my more expensive and technically better cameras
because it's always on me.
It never feels too intrusive
and fundamentally, I can focus on the moment
where I believe every great photo comes from.
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At the very top of this list is the selfie.
Now, I wanted to just start with this
because it's a photo that we all love to take.
Who doesn't like taking a selfie?
And there's a number of ways
that I think you can really easily improve this shot.
The first of which is experimenting with the proximity
you are away from the camera.
Now, one of the reasons why I gravitate towards taking GoPro
or action camera selfies opposed to using a smartphone
is because of the wide angle lens.
I don't have the latest smartphone,
so I don't have that ability.
And I just think the general color science
of an action camera looks better than my smartphone.
So something that I really like to experiment with
and my preferred proximity or length of selfie stick
is the shortest, is actually just holding the camera.
I really feel like when I take a GoPro selfie
and I look back at those memories of me
almost just with the GoPro shorty selfie stick
or holding the camera,
it's like my hand is extended out into the image
and I really feel like I'm there, I'm back in that moment,
remembering what it was like to climb that mountain,
to get to the top of that peak,
or just to experience that place with the person
who I was with.
Quite simply, some simple tips to improve
your GoPro selfies are to think
about your lighting conditions.
Either having the sun side lit,
never having the sun behind you,
backlighting doesn't really make these photos a good,
but either having the sun on the side or in front of you
and always shooting outdoors.
My preferred way of capturing a GoPro selfie
is to use burst mode.
I like to capture 10 raw photos over three seconds
and pick my favorite out of those images.
Yes, I always love to color and edit the photo afterwards
in Lightroom , hence why I use raw.
If you're interested in learning how to color grade
or color your images in Lightroom mobile or in desktop,
you can click up here in the cuts.
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Next up is the landscape photo
and I think this is something often overlooked
with action cameras.
Now, action cameras have come a long way
and if you're using the latest version,
you can really get a lot of pixels in that small frame.
Now here's a couple of photos that we recently took
in the Pyrenees on one of our latest trips,
and I just think to improve this shot
and ways that I really love using this
is really capturing the immersiveness of a landscape,
but also setting this camera up and putting a person
or putting yourself in the frame
is one way to quite simply make that photo
a little bit more relatable.
Always having scale in an image is the perfect way
to showcase just how bold, vast,
and wide that destination is.
Lastly, the way I like to shoot landscape photos
with GoPro is on a tripod
and often using time-lapse photo mode.
I like to use time-lapse photo mode over burst
because I can take photos on an interval
and then select my favorite photo
from that amount of time that I was playing around
in the frame after the fact.
Now you might also like to experiment
with using the countdown timer.
Countdown timer where you can set it up to 10 seconds
if you have less memory card space,
but using a tripod and framing up the shot
whilst putting yourself in is the perfect way
to capture a GoPro landscape shot.
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Next up is one of my all-time favorite travel shots,
and that is the over-under or the dome,
it's probably been coined the dome shot,
but it's quite simply using a affordable accessory,
which is a big dome, which sits in front of the lens.
Yes, you can actually create this shot
without having a dome,
but it is extremely difficult to achieve.
I'm sure anyone that has experimented and tried to do this
will know of the difficulty.
So just buying one of these 50 to 100 US dollar accessories
is how you're able to capture this shot.
Now, some advice that I've got
and some of the most frequently asked questions
that I get about creating these photos is how to remove
the water droplets over the lens,
and that quite simply just comes down to dunking the dome
into the water before you take the shot.
Other things to keep in mind are light.
It's a critical to making the best dome content.
This photo that we recently took,
we shot just after sunrise,
so it was probably like maybe nine, 10AM.
I think the light was really nice.
It was behind the camera and we were just conscious
of where that shadow fell into the shot.
So thinking about the water conditions as well,
the calmer the better.
So if you're in really rapid water conditions,
you're not gonna be able to control the environment
as best as you can.
Dome photos, I absolutely love taking.
There will be links in the description to specific domes
that I've used, both the GDome and the Telesin dome.
I recommend both of these if you are interested
in grabbing a dome and experimenting with this
on your upcoming vacation.
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Just before we jump into the next tip,
I wanted to direct you to an amazing
online learning platform and the sponsor of today's video,
which is Skillshare.
For those of you that have never heard of Skillshare,
I highly recommended it.
It is an online learning platform with thousands
of inspiring classes and courses
for curious people and creatives.
It's an opportunity to explore your existing curiosities
and learn new skills.
And a course which I've recently taken
was by Nathaniel Drew.
Something that I watched actually
just before making this video and I think pairs well
with preserving memories is about his course
called Documenting Your Life.
One thing I found really empowering
from watching this course is this idea
of how documentation as opposed to creativity
is a way to remove the judgment from our work.
So if you've ever been wanting to start that project,
if you've ever been thinking about becoming
or starting a YouTube channel,
becoming a writer or photographer or filmmaker,
think about documenting first to ease your way
into that process.
And lastly, because Skillshare are absolute legends,
the first 1000 of my subscribers to click the top link
of the description will be given a one month free trial
to Skillshare so you can start exploring
your creativity today.
I will also put a link to the Nathaniel Drew course
that I watched,
because I think it's fundamental to also evolving this idea
as to why you should enjoy and document
and continue to create really awesome GoPro photos.
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This has to be one of my favorite types of photos,
and I think it's some of the most impressive photos
I have ever captured with an action camera.
And to be honest with you, underwater photos,
I was never really that good at
when I first started shooting them.
So some tips that I would recommend to help you
to improve your underwater photos is one,
to become a better diver.
That's something that as you know,
and we're not all, can't all hold our breath for that long,
but even if you can improve your free diving
just a little bit, then your underwater photos,
100% will get better.
In terms of the technique,
one of the skills that I've learned to develop
in creating underwater photos is actually shooting
towards the light.
Now that means positioning myself between the subject
and the light,
and often how I've managed to do this is to free dive down
and whether Anna or whoever I'm diving with
positions themselves between the light source and me,
the photographer, that's where I've managed
to get absolute gold.
So some tips to take on board to improve
your underwater photography is to definitely think
about shooting either at sunset or at sunrise
when you're getting those really nice light beams
really break through the water surface.
Whenever you see that, wear goggles
whilst you're doing this
so you can really analyze the situation under water.
Technique wise, again, use burst.
Burst mode is the best way to be able to really fine pick
the best frame out of an action sequence.
Again, I like to do this 10 photos
over three seconds shooting raw.
Two reasons, one, because I want the camera
to be able to process those raw images quickly
so that we can shoot more photos as opposed to doing them
in JPEG and shooting 30 over six.
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This is perfect for solo travelers.
Quite simply, I would use a bike mount
and shoot this photo mostly in landscape,
or I would awkwardly position the camera in my mouth
and get a portrait shot shooting point of view.
Now, when you're creating point of view content,
I think it's really also important to think about
how you can theme or stylize that shot.
Sometimes the landscape can just be amazing
that all you have to do is sit there and put up a peace sign
and it looks amazing.
Other times we can evolve that point of view
to really story tell a little bit,
whether that's by holding up a prop or an object
to give you a viewer more of a,
just to give you your photo more of a story.
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The next type of photo is to add a person,
and so this is for those of you that are traveling together.
One of our favorite photos that we recently took
in the Maldives was this one with the coconuts.
I think what makes this photo really desirable
and awesome is not looking at the shot.
If you and the subject are both looking away,
I think this is a really great way to provide
a wanderlust, dreamy travel image
that me as the viewer, wants to put myself in.
I wanna be sitting by that pool.
I want to be with my partner having that amazing time
in that location.
Again, you can do this anywhere
and you can really experiment and play around
with this type of photo,
but essentially it's putting the first person
and the second person into the photo
to capture something amazing.
Have as much fun with this as possible,
and if you wanna go down that route,
you can also do the following too.
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Next up is thinking about point of view style shots,
but not as you or someone else, but as an object.
Now, often we see these photos where people dig little holes
in the beach or put the GoPro in the fridge
or put it, to provide us the perspective of an object.
I think this is a really, really innovative and cool photo
and I challenge you on your next vacation
to find something fun to put your GoPro in
and provide that objective POV.
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Tips for setting up the camera in waves
that you can essentially get better content with wildlife
is again to use those faster shooting modes.
Now, if you really want,
you can also explore setting your camera up
as a camera trap by downloading GoPro Labs.
I will put a link to a tutorial on how to set up GoPro Labs
so you can create a camera trap and just set your camera up
with a power bank shooting overnight.
Now, something that I haven't tested out myself,
but if you are interested in exploring that idea,
why not give it a go?
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Idea number nine is night photos
and playing around with light.
This, quite simply, is done in photo mode
and it's having a longer exposure
or opening up the camera shutter for a long period of time.
What I recommend doing for this is using a tripod,
setting your camera up on a tripod.
It's actually paramount.
Paramount to getting this kind of shot is using a tripod.
I would probably recommend maybe using a more sturdy tripod
than the GoPro plastic tripods.
Think about getting a torch.
You can use your smart phone,
or you can use like the Zeus light to paint light
into the shot.
Very fun to play around with
and something that I highly recommend exploring
and taking on your next vacation.
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Second last photo idea on the list is the action shot.
Now you can do this with any of these photos.
It could be a POV, it could be a selfie,
it could be a landscape.
Now I essentially, what we're doing
is we're just performing an action
either in front of the GoPro or whilst holding it.
Again to create these shots, use burst mode,
shoot fast and enjoy the moment.
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Now, the last idea that I wanna share with you
is high res screen-grabs.
This is something that I think a lot of people overlook,
but it's something that I always use for creating thumbnails
in these YouTube videos.
Now, if you're shooting in four or five K
on your action camera,
remember you can create high res screen grabs.
In this little table up here,
it shows you like all the resolution of image
that you can create from your screen grab,
and the best way to do this is actually through
the GoPro app, not just by using Command Shift four
on your Mac and clicking and dragging
your screen frame size,
but actually using the GoPro software
to create the screen grab.
Guys, I hope you have enjoyed this video.
Again, a huge thank you and shout out
to Skillshare for sponsoring today's video.
Do check out that course by Nathaniel Drew.
Thank you for sharing the stoke
and I will see you guys in the next video. JR, peace.
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