- What is going on?
In this video, we're talking about GoPros and ND filters
and why you need ND filters on your GoPro
to get cinematic footage.
(bouncy music)
Happy New Year's guys, it's been an awesome start to 2018.
I hope you guys have set some intentions for this year,
maybe some resolutions.
Personally, me and Rachel, we don't do resolutions anymore.
Our friend turned us on to this concept
of just setting a word or an intention for the year
to basically set you up so that you're good to go
for the entire year and you don't have
these outlandish goals that you just don't end up hitting.
So, instead of doing a resolution
where I'm going to lose this,
I'm going to get this, I'm gonna do this,
instead we have a word.
We started this last year
and if you went back to our last New Year's vlog,
you'll see that we sat down, did a big thing,
everyone said their words.
But this year mine is expand
because my goal is to expand this channel,
expand my business, expand just everything that I do
and make it bigger.
I'm focusing on doing a documentary this year,
focusing on a lot of things to basically grow
what I've already started creating.
And here on this channel, I'm hoping to expand
and be able to bring you guys more content
and more stuff that you guys want to see.
So as you go into 2018, maybe think of a word,
or an idea, or an intention to set
because that will help drive you the rest of the year.
Okay, let's talk GoPros and let's talk ND filters.
I've gotten this question a bunch,
"Why do you need ND filters?
"What do ND filters do?"
So this is an explanation of that.
Basically what an ND filter does is
it's sunglasses on a camera.
Sunglasses.
You put sunglasses on your face, it cuts the exposure down.
It's the same thing with an ND filter.
So, an ND filter is essentially just sunglasses on a GoPro.
And you can see I've got my ND filter on my GoPro.
They basically replace the lens.
So this is the ND filter, this is the camera,
and they just snap right on
so that you have a new lens on your camera.
So what is the point of an ND filter?
An ND filter gives you the ability
to bring your shutter speed down.
And to get cinematic footage with any camera,
not just the GoPro,
you need to have your shutter speed
double that of your frame rate.
This is a standard that was set years ago.
This look of having your shutter speed
double that of your frame rate
was set up when people were shooting on film
and basically they had a shutter angle,
instead of a shutter speed.
So you have to think about it a little different.
Think of a pie chart and what filmmakers would do
is they'd have this rotating plate in the camera
that allowed light to come in every frame.
And the degrees at which this was open
was your shutter angle.
The standard for cinema film across everything
is 180 degrees shutter angle
and what that is is half the pie chart.
So half would be open and half would be closed.
So to get that same effect with cameras nowadays
is basically using shutter speed versus shutter angle.
And shutter speed is essentially the same exact thing,
it's just the amount of time that it lets the light
hit the sensor.
When you have a shutter speed that is low,
like 1/24th of a second, it's gonna let a lot more light in
than say you have 1/5000 of a second.
So to get that cinematic footage,
you want to be at 180 degrees,
which in shutter speed is double that of your frame rate.
So think about it, you have 24 frames a second,
you're gonna want 1/48th of a second for your shutter speed.
So when you're working with any cameras nowadays,
you'll realize that you can't just get 1/48th of a second
and get good footage.
Everything is going to be overexposed.
To be able to get that shutter speed,
you have to use an ND filter.
So my long-winded response of what an ND filter does
is that it brings your shutter speed down
so that you're able to get double that of your frame rate
and get that cinematic look.
When you do this, you're going to create more motion blur
in the frame and that's what looks cinematic.
When the shutter speed is way too high,
you get that really jittery look to your footage
and you're seeing it more and more,
it's more common nowadays because so many of these cameras
are just auto, they just boost up the shutter speed
to deal with the fact that you don't have ND filters
in front of your lens.
But to get that very cinematic look,
you gotta get that shutter speed down.
So I took the GoPro 5 and the GoPro 6 out today.
I tested them side-by-side, one with an ND filter on it,
and one without.
I wanted to show you guys the footage
right next to each other so you can see exactly
what an ND filter does and how it affects your footage.
So with this test, what I did is,
I put the ND filter on one of the two cameras
and I set the shutter speed using the manual settings
in Protune to be able to get down to 1/48th of a second.
That allowed me to get that cinematic look
and then the rest of the settings,
I let set auto except for white balance,
which I had in both at 55000
and that's to show you that the ND filters will change
the color of the footage a little bit.
So there will be a little bit of a difference
when you put an ND filter on.
It's going to do a little bit of a color shift.
That's usually what happens with ND filters.
Something to keep in mind
but not the biggest deal in the world.
I'm using Polarpro's ND filters.
I have an eight, a 16, and a 32.
(light music)
So overall, to get the cinematic look,
you wanna get your footage to double
that of your frame rate.
So if you're shooting at 24, you want 1/48th of a second.
If you're shooting at 30, you're gonna
want 1/60th of a second, and so on, and so on.
And that's how you get the cinematic look.
So how do you choose which ND filter you're going to use
on your day of shooting?
So like I said earlier, I have the eight,
the 16, and the 32 and they're all Polarpros ND filters.
These things are great.
They look really good.
But the way you choose your ND filter is based on strength.
Each of them cut out more stops of light than the next
and the basic rule of thumb is an eight is for a cloudy day.
A 16 is for partly-sunny, maybe sunny,
maybe lower sun in the sky,
and 32 is blazing sun, middle of the day,
hottest day of the year, just ahhhh.
That's when you'd use something like a 32.
And you have to play with them,
get to know how your camera responds
when you put an ND filter on.
Your goal is just to get that shutter speed
to only double that of your frame rate.
Alright, guys, that is it for today.
Again, Happy New Year.
It's gonna be a great 2018.
Starting off the year strong, lots of stuff coming.
More New Zealand vlogs are coming as well.
I'm going to work on those the next few days.
Make sure you follow us on Instagram @wonderworks
and I hope you have an awesome day.
I will see you on the next one.