Hi, this is Karen McKee, the scientist videographer. The GoPro Hero is a great camera for action
filming such as skiing, surfing, and mountain biking; however, there are lots of other ways
to use this versatile camera.
I recently tried out my GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition in some tide pools on Kangaroo Island
in South Australia. With the gopro, I could put the camera underwater and film in really
shallow tide pools. I could also capture footage of the swirling water and sand as each wave
rolled into the tide pool.
You may be a nature enthusiast or photographer with a new GoPro. Or you may be a student
or scientist studying the marine environment. In this tutorial I'm going to show you how
to set up your GoPro to film in a shallow-water setting such as a tide pool or even your backyard
swimming pool.
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To assemble the gopro for underwater filming, you will, of course, be using the underwater
housing that comes with your camera. Of prime importance is to ensure that you have the
solid lid attached to your housing and not the skeleton door. Also, clean the lens on
the camera as well as the corresponding areas on the housing. You don't want a smudge or
piece of lint messing up your footage.
Put the camera into its waterproof housing and ensure it's seated properly. Check the
gasket to make sure it's free of sand, hair, and other debris. Close the lid and double-check
the seal to make sure it's seated properly.
I recommend setting your camera up in a clean, dry environment. Once you get out and start
filming in tide pools or other underwater situations, you don't want to open up the
underwater housing again unless you have to, for example, to change out the battery. I'll
go through a few suggestions about that a bit later. For now, let's go into the camera
settings.
First, let's look at the video settings. I used 1080 p, 30 frames per second, and medium
view. You can certainly go for a higher resolution if you want, but keep in mind that it will
take more memory. 1080p is high definition and a good choice to start off.
You can shoot at 30 frames per second or some other setting, for example 60 fps if you are
planning to later show some portion of your footage in slow motion. If not, 30 frames
per second will do.
The next setting is field of view. Medium or Wide mode will probably work for most situations--you
might want to try both and see what works best.
The last setting is the low light option. In most cases, there will be plenty of light
in a tide pool, so leave this turned off.
If you also plan to shoot still images, then you want to set this up as well. You have
four basic choices with combinations of field of view and image size. I usually go with
something that will be a good resolution but not take up too much memory such as 7 wide.
Let's take a quick look at the capture settings. In here, you have the option of flipping the
view upside down. This comes in handy if you have your GoPro on the end of a pole and will
be shooting with the camera upside down. If so, then turn this option on. Then your footage
will be right-side up when you edit. Otherwise leave it off.
Turn spot mode off; this will cause the camera to evaluate the entire scene to get the best
exposure overall.
Next is looping, which you want off unless you need this option for some reason.
Finally, turn ProTune off; if you have ProTune turned on, this will require more effort when
you try to edit your footage later.
And those are the basic settings. If you are planning to dive with your gopro, then you
might want to use a filter to correct for the lighting at deeper depths. But for snorkeling
and in tide pools, a filter is not necessary.
Now, let's look at a few different ways to film in a tide pool.
First, you can just hold the camera in your hand and dip it into the water, moving it
around for different perspectives. That's what I'm doing here. The main downside to
this approach is that it can be difficult to hold the image horizontal and steady and
also you might have problems keeping your fingers out of the field of view. You are
basically going to be shooting blind, which makes it difficult to frame up the scene or
organisms that you wish to film. It may take some trial and error to get what you want.
One important consideration is that the GoPro has a minimum focusing distance of twelve
inches. Any closer, and the object will be blurred
Another option is to attach your GoPro to a pole, and then you can dip it into the water.
Now I've made this pole out of PVC pipe, as you can see, and I put an attachment on the
end that I can fit the mount that holds the camera at one end. I've also made some extra
sections so that I can lengthen the pole if I need to.
So this approach is going to require that you flip the view upside down in the capture
settings.
Now if there's a chance that you may lose your grip on your camera or it comes loose
for some reason. It may be a good idea to attach a tether directly to your camera and
then attach the tether to yourself so your camera is protected.
An alternative is to exchange out the back lid with another lid to which you've attached
a float. And you can get these from GoPro. And that fits right on here and if your camera
comes loose, the float will bring your camera to the surface of the water.
Another option is to set your GoPro up on a tripod like this, and then all you have
to do is set it down into the bottom of the pool; and you can angle your camera up or
down, however you need to set it.
This is a great way to capture time lapse film in a tide pool. Perhaps you are interested
in shooting a time lapse of an organism, for example. This is what you would want to use
to make sure that your camera is steady throughout all of the shots that will be taken with your
camera.
What if you need to open up the housing for some reason--for example to change out the
battery? Well, you want to be really careful about not letting any water, particularly
seawater, touch your camera. So the first thing to do is to rinse your camera off in
freshwater. You can submerge it in a bowl like this or just pour water over it. Then
you want to shake off as much of the water as you can. And then, using a clean, dry towel,
dry off the housing. And then once you've got most of the water droplets off, then set
your camera down in the air and let the rest of the moisture on the outside of the housing
evaporate. Then you can open the housing and take out your camera.
Once you are sure there is no moisture and your hands are dry, open the housing and quickly
change out the battery.
Note that even taking these precautions, you may have fogging problems later. So you might
want to pop in two or three anti-fog inserts.
Well, those are a few basic instructions on how to set up your GoPro Hero camera to shoot
in a tide pool or some other shallow underwater setting. For more tips and tutorials, please
check out my ebook.
And thanks for watching.
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