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Protune, Protune & More Protune
If you\’ve never really explored all the features of your GoPro, Protune is a great place to begin. I could go on and on about all of the Protune settings and what they signify, I could. However, there are a handful of modifications that you may make right now to improve the quality of your footage immediately.
To access your Protune settings, Power on your GoPro, select your shooting profile and click the pencil icon to edit settings. Scroll down through the menu until you see Protune.
Bit Rate
First, we want to change how much data our camera is recording. Simply click \”Bit Rate\” and select \”High\”. It\’s really that simple and your GoPro will now be able to store more data while recording, which means more details in your videos.
GoPros tend to have a very over-sharpened and saturated look out of the box. This next tip may cause some controversy but gives you more flexibility and diversity in post-production.
Sharpness
Scroll down a bit further in your Protune settings until you see the \”Sharpness\” setting. Click the setting and move the slider to the bottom to select \”Low\”. The image produced by the GoPro will now look far more organic, rather than pixelated and over-sharpened.
The \”Low\” setting might not seem to be sharp enough for some, however, it is one of the easiest things to adjust in nearly every video editing software available.
Color Profile
Next, let\’s work on dynamic range and color saturation. These are two features GoPro has been working really hard on improving in recent years and it shows! Depending on which GoPro model you are using, there are multiple ways to achieve this look.
Simply select \”Color\” in your Protune settings and select the \”Flat\” profile. Alternatively, if you\’re using a GoPro Hero 10 alternatively you can set the profile to \”Natural\” to get a more cinematic out-of-the-box look.
What exactly is a \”flat\” image? Simply, the camera is not over-processing the colors and adding a ridiculous amount of saturation. Even if you\’re new to the video editing world when you add a \”filter\” or color grade in any type of post-production software this will give you more room to adjust colors and saturation to get the look you want to achieve.
ISO
Finally, we want to reduce the amount of noise in each of our shots. We can have some control of this by setting our ISO parameters in Protune.
What is ISO? Essentially ISO controls the sensitivity of the imaging sensor. Imagine ISO similar to the volume knob or gain of your car stereo. When playing music through your car at low volumes the audio has the most fidelity, and when blasting music at its peak you begin to get distortion and clipping; the same is true for ISO. When we select a low minimum ISO we can maintain the maximum image quality, however, this also means that our sensor is less sensitive to light, and therefore, the camera will not capture low light environments without other adjustments.
On the GoPro cameras, ISO is set automatically in Auto mode when shooting video. However, if you want to take full control of your GoPro\’s ISO and be able to select a specific ISO range that\’s within our GoPro model then we need to change it by selecting \”ISO Min\” and \”ISO Max\”. I keep my minimum set at \”100\” and my max set to \”400\”. I\’ve found that this gives me enough versatility for shooting in daylight without compromising image quality. One thing to note, the GoPro Hero 10 has made significant improvements in reducing noise in low light conditions and higher ISO settings.
There you have it, these simple changes will make your footage looking more professional and dynamic right away. Feel free to drop a comment if you have any questions.