Best Underwater GoPro Tips | For Photography and Videos

hey guys welcome back to my channel in

this video i'm going to share some of my

best gopro underwater tips with you i'm

excited to bring this video to you i've

had a lot of questions over the years

because a lot of you have seen how much

i love filming underwater so i'm excited

to answer these questions and give you

the best underwater settings show you

some of the best underwater accessories

and also give you tips for filming

different subjects underwater such as

shallow reef life deep reef life

somebody else yourself or even an

underwater scene with nobody in it gopro

cameras are just such a great camera for

filming underwater because it's already

waterproof so let's dive in and check

out some of the nuts and bolts first

about filming underwater and then i'm

going to go into these different

subjects and give you specific tips for

each of these subjects so you can get

better gopro footage underwater the

first underwater question that i'd like

to answer is which camera is best for

filming underwater footage and the

answer is basically any of the standard

gopro cameras not the 360 cameras are

going to be your best cameras for

filming underwater

these cameras have high resolution they

take great photos and as you move into

the hero 9 and hero 10 you're getting

higher resolution and the hero 11 also

is going to have higher resolution so

these cameras of course will bring you

the best video resolution but even if

you're filming with an older camera you

can get some great footage underwater

the cameras are waterproof as they are

to 33 feet deep so you don't need an

additional housing

from the hero5 on

and if you want to go deeper than that

there is a protective case you can use

which goes down to 196 feet deep next i

want to talk to you about the best gopro

underwater settings

now first i like to decide if i'm going

to go to get video or if i'm trying to

pull photos say i need to get a photo

for a project i'll kind of choose my

settings accordingly however for both of

these whether i'm recording video or

trying to get photos i like to use video

modes underwater and i'll talk about how

i use that to get photos in just a

second but first let's talk about video

so when i go out and i know i'm going to

record underwater videos i like to set

my camera to at least 4k at 60 frames

per second and that's available on

anywhere from the

hero 8 up to the hero 10 hero 11

wherever we're going

4k 60 is going to be available for you

if you're recording at least 4k video

you're going to have some really nice

high resolution images now i also like

to have the higher frame rate of 60

frames per second so i can slow down the

action because a lot of times underwater

things happen quickly and it's nice to

have the ability to slow it down there

are a few other settings you'll also

want to adjust when you're going in the

water one is to lock the touch screen so

you can swipe down on the back of the

dashboard and lock that screen so that

when the water touches it doesn't change

all your settings another thing you want

to do is dial in those presets before

you get out in the water because then

you can just change between different

presets it's a lot easier than trying to

change settings with wet hands you can

also use the button menu to change

between different presets you just tap

that mode button and quickly tap the top

shutter button and then you can use the

button menu on the front screen of the

camera as long as that front screen is

turned on that allows you to change

between different presets out in the

water if you're going out underwater and

you want to get photos from your video i

recommend just changing the settings

slightly and you can set this as one of

your presets i like to record 5k 4-3 at

30 frames per second that's going to

give you the full width of that sensor

and then you can pull photos from that

you're going to get really high

resolution photos

from your video i actually barely ever

use photo mode specifically underwater

unless i'm looking for a raw file like

say for the cover of one of my books or

something then i'll shoot photos

underwater but otherwise i like to just

record video in that full frame and pull

stills from it you just end up with so

many opportunities it's much easier and

you don't have to wait for the camera to

process those files

obviously you guys know about my books

so if you do need help with all these

settings or you just want to have a

handy field guide with you out as you're

filming be sure to go pick up one of the

books for your camera because it's

really helpful and i think you'll enjoy

it now let's talk about a few of the key

elements that are absolutely necessary

to get really good underwater shots so

the first thing you're going to need is

sunlight and as you go underwater

sunlight is very very important it

naturally gets filtered out by the water

as you go deeper but if you're not

starting out with any sunlight your

colors are going to be dull and you're

just not going to have any vibrance

underwater and blue skies are the best

if you don't have blue skies the water

is going to look kind of grayish so two

things you want to start with sunlight

blue skies and the third thing that you

really need is clear water obviously if

you don't have clear water you're not

going to see much distance in the water

and it's not going to allow for those

really magical shots now if you are

filming in some water that's a little

bit more murky one thing you can do is

use a over under port or it's called a

50 50 dome port and this kind of allows

you to get some subject that's above the

water while incorporating under the

water too so it doesn't totally need to

be as clear although if it is clear it's

going to look more magical of course

but you can kind of pull the focus up to

the surface on say like somebody stand

up paddling or a sailboat and then you

get a little bit of that underwater

action too it's kind of one way to get

around it if the water is not super

clear but most of all you're just going

to want to look for that clearest water

possible let's talk about the subjects

that you're going to be filming because

the way you film is kind of going to

differ depending on what you're filming

the first thing i'd like to talk about

is shallow reef life

now this is going to be something

stationary for the most part where

you're filming a reef coral reef for

example or even a kelp reef but

something that's more near the surface

within that first eight feet of water

you can get a lot of natural sunlight in

this area and you can use that natural

sunlight to light those scenes

now because the scenes are stationary

for the most part you're going to want

to use cinematic filming techniques as

you film that so you can kind of use

dolly shots or panning shots or you

create a movement going towards the reef

or across the reef to kind of create

some magic instead of just a still shot

that looks like it's on a tripod you can

also do that and mix that in too but you

definitely want to remember to create

some movement out there since the

subjects are stationary now as you get

deeper if you're going to go down like

lower than say eight feet deep you might

want to add some lights in so dive

lights can be pretty expensive but you

could use like two loom cubes they put

out 1500 lumens each and as you get

closer to your subjects that's going to

actually help light up those colors to

bring the colors back into the shots

and the way you do that is you want to

mount it so that lights are not actually