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How to take great underwater photos with your GoPro

Sean Elliott - Underwater Video

9,546 views

In today's video I'm going to explain the settings I use to get the most out of my GoPro when taking underwater photos.

Ill go through the reasons why you have issues getting clear photos. The settings I recommend and the accessories and techniques I use.

It won't matter if you have a GoPro Hero 6 or a GoPro Hero13 this guide is for you.

This channel is all about using Action Cameras, Mobile Phones paired with economic accessories to take amazing underwater video and photos.

I use and recommend LetonPower lights and accessories. For a 10% discount on all LetonPower products please use my affiliate link below or use the code SEANDIVER02 at checkout.

https://www.letondive.com?sca_ref=883...

To watch my original review of their L12 lights please watch: Testing the LetonPower Sealion L12. Is it ...

If you want to know the best wide angle and macro lens for GoPro then check out this video:

The best wide angle and macro lenses for G...

0:00 Introduction
01:00 Benefits/Disadvantages of using a GoPro
04:27 Settings
18:10 Accessories
25:30 Techniques

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Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/yeti-music/rock-...
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For the flip system, red filters and macromate they are all made by www.backscatter.com

#gopro #letonpower #underwaterphotography

18 Comments

@seanuwvideo Creator 2 weeks ago Pinned

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If you found any value in this video then please consider supporting the channel by making a small donation to my paypal or using the above affiliate links. This channel costs far more to make than the small amount of income YouTube pays. Any support would be greatly appreciated. paypal.me/seanuwvideo
The things you can do to help that costs you nothing but really helps me out.
1.Let all videos play through to the end to help the algorithm
2. SUBSCRIBE
3. Give it a thumbs up
4. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook
5. Make a comment
6. Tell others about it the channel
7. Use any affiliate links I have.

Thanks you so much for watching and making this channel great!

@frankstopa6270 1 year ago

Nice video. Thanks.

@c_drover 1 year ago

Your videos are so incredibly helpful! I love taking pictures and video with my GoPro and have been trying to learn how to get better quality. Just spent the evening following along with this vid and adding new presets to my camera.

@lifeinthemiddle55 1 year ago

I agree! I'd love to have a Nauticam housing and all the lights and strobes for my Canon R5, but when I share my content gathered with an action cam people are really surprised and impressed. Tho action cams are easy in the sense that all the settings are auto, milking out all the possibilities takes skill, and that I know you know.

@lifeinthemiddle55 1 year ago

I imagine it's a matter of recording speed for the micro SD card. At 4k 120 it would likely exceed the buffer in the camera.

@lifeinthemiddle55 1 year ago

Yep, you're tasting our good old tariffs. Between the time I got my quote from Backscatter and the time I purchased the adapter and wide lens, the prices jumped significantly for both. The adapter went from $69 to $129!
I did get the wide lens prior to the price hike, I don't recall exactly, but I think it went from $199 to $340.

@lifeinthemiddle55 1 year ago

I think you'll be very pleased with cave diving and the Ace Pro2. Shots I took in low light and a night dive would not have been possible with my GoPro. Granted, it was a Hero 9, but there is literally no comparison. I believe you'll enjoy the macromate as well. I did get it to function nicely with clarity zoom. For my style of diving tho I just didn't see it being a good fit for reasons you mentioned in other videos....time consuming shot establishment being one, and the necessity to swap between macromate and the aoi wide lens was more than I wanted to deal with.

@lifeinthemiddle55 1 year ago

It might be worth checking out the Ace Pro2. I took quite a few photos with one on a trip last week and it didn't occur to me until I was almost done that I didn't have to denoise a single photo. Some photos I use a single 4200 lumen light, and others are ambient only. None are grainy, and all have good data in the shadows. The really neat thing is that on every one of them, the iso was at or near 100.
All of them have a shutter speed above 500 and some at 2500 or higher. It's really spectacular what the secondary ai chip does in this camera.

@accordingtoseth7307 5 months ago

I’m about to go cage diving with great whites would these settings be good for that? Also do you have video settings I can use

@Soleshaker1 1 year ago

when the update file is on the card and in the camera how do you access and instal dive-1 etc?

@lifeinthemiddle55 1 year ago

I hope you'll be quite pleased with the zoom. When clicking between 2x and 1x, when played back, I notice no difference in quality. If you didn't know the scene jumped because of zooming in, you'd maybe just think it was an edit cut.
I programmed the power button to be 2x zoom while recording.
I also programmed the diving preset to be automatically on 2x when I hit record. I still would've benefited from the macromate, but with the sharp wide lens' shorter focusing distance, I was able to get decent shots of Pdersons shrimp and Arrow crab.

@lifeinthemiddle55 1 year ago

I just clicked my camera on to check, and no, you can not use clarity zoom in 4k 120. You can do 4k 60, though.

@GiacomoSUBandFriends 1 year ago (edited)

Hi Sean, taking pictures with wide angle wet lens I get the corners. Does the DIVE gopro labs command apply both video and photo mode?

@VoyageIntotheDeep 1 year ago (edited)

The question is, using a small (old) sensor that doesn't catch much light, AND plus using additional filter (which as it filters, filters /BLOCK most of the light, apart from what colour it is) ia a not bad idea ? Isn't it better to boost the missing colours in the software afterwards, rather than darkening and depriving the whole thing of detail ?

@majapopo6009 1 year ago

Does the Aoi lens work on gopro hero 8? I need your opinion before buy it ,✌🏽

@200BarScubaDiving 2 months ago

Hi Sean, i just watched a video from backscatter and they were recommending that on the go pro hero 11 the best ISO values for wide angle and macro videos are ISO min 100 and ISO max 6400. While for wide angle and macro photos the ISO min should be set to 100 and the max to 3200. Any opinions on that? From what I understand, even if you set 6400 as the max ISO the Gopro will automatically adjust the ISO based on the light conditions, so it's not granted that the highest ISO value will be chosen by the camera and the final picture will be pity, you are just giving the Gopro the boundaries between it can operate.

@GiacomoSUBandFriends 1 year ago

Hi Sean, I took some pictures following your video suggestions but ... I only download JPG photos not raw. What I did wrong? I downloaded in quik app on my tablet samsung s8

@lifeinthemiddle55 1 year ago

The beauty of the Ace Pro2 for use in wide and Macro shots is that with having the 8k sensor, when you hit the 2x clarity zoom its still recording 4k. With the low-light performance and clarity zoom, once you're able to configure it with the macromate and wide like on your gopro, it will be a winner.
One odd thing I noticed when editing is that the video from the Ace Pro2 is easier editing than the stills whereas with my gopro I found the opposite to be true.
My gopro always had a deep Magenta cast to and the Ace has an aqua cast to it.