Phone & GoPro for Capturing Footage

MachKneel

Insta : @flex_and_freedom
Mar 23, 2021
131
158
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Co.Derry, Ireland
I ride a
Harley Davidson Softail 2021, Yamaha R6 2005
Hi Folks,

I have captured the beginnings of our first moto vlog at the weekend and if Irish weather would improve, I'll will get the riding portion of the video this weekend coming and then I am good to get stuck into editing :)

Was just wondering if any of you use a mixture of Go Pro footage and say iPhone/Phone footage for youtube?

Am I correct in saying that aspect ratios for Youtube should always be 9:16? I am fairly new to all of this kinda stuff :(

Our Instagram page has grown at a decent rate since we started it but we obviously just use our mobile phones for media uploading there and haven't attempted youtube just yet.

We have 2 of each of the below, 1 for each rider;

Go Pro Hero 7 Black
iPhone 11 Pro
Mic Adaptor
Purple Panda Mic
Helmet Mounts
Sena 10S

And I also apologise if this has been covered elsewhere before!

P.S anyone know how to change my username on this? :)

Thanks

John
 
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BikeFather

Wannabie Member
Apr 11, 2021
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I don't see why not. A video is a video at the end of the day. 16:9 is kind of the standard for videos. Twist your phone into landscape mode and start recording.
 

MachKneel

Insta : @flex_and_freedom
Mar 23, 2021
131
158
43
Co.Derry, Ireland
I ride a
Harley Davidson Softail 2021, Yamaha R6 2005
I don't see why not. A video is a video at the end of the day. 16:9 is kind of the standard for videos. Twist your phone into landscape mode and start recording.

Yeah that's what we did at the weekend but I haven't reviewed footage on editing software just yet so fingers crossed it comes across ok. :)
 

HippoDrone

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Sadly that is too long, think it is 10 characters tops
 

Theodor

Don't wannabe
Nov 16, 2017
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I record majority of my off the bike footage, with phone. Modern phones are definitely good enough for that. 16:9 is the same aspect ratio, my action camera uses, so I have chosen that also on my phone, so the footage would fit together well, without any cropping or stretching. Youtube will accept different aspect ratio videos too, by the way, but it might add some padding to the sides of it, which can look a bit odd.
 
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MachKneel

Insta : @flex_and_freedom
Mar 23, 2021
131
158
43
Co.Derry, Ireland
I ride a
Harley Davidson Softail 2021, Yamaha R6 2005
I record majority of my off the bike footage, with phone. Modern phones are definitely good enough for that. 16:9 is the same aspect ratio, my action camera uses, so I have chosen that also on my phone, so the footage would fit together well, without any cropping or stretching. Youtube will accept different aspect ratio videos too, by the way, but it might add some padding to the sides of it, which can look a bit odd.

Yeah I did a quick trial video and uploaded it as a private video on youtube just to check it out and I don't like the visual of mixing ratios too much.

Think I will use my phone for all off the bike footage going forward :)

thanks for that!

John
 
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Moto Mengy

Motovlogger from PA, USA
Mar 23, 2020
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I'll often use my Samsung S10 for recording "off the bike footage" when I'm too lazy to remove the GoPro from the helmet. It works very well, honestly I sometimes think the video quality is BETTER than the GoPro's! Sometimes I'll hook up my lav mic to record the audio in the phone too for excellent quality voice recording.

Modern phones can be very handy for filming.
 

scooterwuf

L Plate Member
Jan 6, 2017
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Was there a specific setting you were using with your phone. Digital video recording is pretty standard for 16:9, unless you are shooting at SD (4:3), or 720. If the latter, if I’m not mistaken, you could probably scale up to 1080p size, and match the footage sizes. The only thing you would have to worry about is if some level of aliasing in the footage.

Other considerations would be the color settings of each camera. If you can control them for specific lighting conditions - bright light, low light - to FPS speed, you may have a better chance of matching the look between each camera.

-Wolf
 
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MachKneel

Insta : @flex_and_freedom
Mar 23, 2021
131
158
43
Co.Derry, Ireland
I ride a
Harley Davidson Softail 2021, Yamaha R6 2005
Other considerations would be the color settings of each camera. If you can control them for specific lighting conditions - bright light, low light - to FPS speed, you may have a better chance of matching the look between each camera.

-Wolf

Great advice this, thank you for that!
 

WaltInPA

Wannabie Member
Jun 10, 2020
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I have an iPhone that I've used a handful of times off the bike. I think it does a great job and the video looks good. One thing to keep in mind though (at least with my iPhone 8 Plus) is that it doesn't have image stabilization like an action camera. So if you're doing handheld recording without a tripod or gimbal, it may look a bit shaky in comparison to your other footage.

Other considerations would be the color settings of each camera. If you can control them for specific lighting conditions - bright light, low light - to FPS speed, you may have a better chance of matching the look between each camera.

This is a problem I run into using a GoPro on my helmet and a DJI Osmo Action on my handlebars as a rear facing camera. The coloring looks different and sometimes it drives me crazy trying to make them look the same while editing.
 
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Theodor

Don't wannabe
Nov 16, 2017
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My last 2 phones have had cameras with optical stabilization. But no worries if you have a cheap phone, like say iPhone :p , some of the stutter can be taken out with video editing programs too. Just master the ninja walk and check for tutorials how to film steady, without steadycam. Most tips you'll find, can be applied to phones too ;)
 

scooterwuf

L Plate Member
Jan 6, 2017
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This is a problem I run into using a GoPro on my helmet and a DJI Osmo Action on my handlebars as a rear facing camera. The coloring looks different and sometimes it drives me crazy trying to make them look the same while editing.

It's never an easy fix, especially if you have to do a lot of color correcting in post. I find that never works because the video is probably compressed in the rendering when exporting out of your editing program, and then again when uploaded to YouTube which messes up all of your color correction.

The best solution I've found is to try to have each camera set for the lighting condition it will be shooting in - low light/bright light, natural light, artificial, or if you can White Balance your cameras, do so.

I also pay attention to how the sky is rendered by a camera by its shade of blue in relation to another camera. If necessary I use that for what I'm trying to match when doing color correction in post, but the general rule for me is less is more. The less I have to do, the less off it will look when uploaded to YouTube.

- Wolf
 

MachKneel

Insta : @flex_and_freedom
Mar 23, 2021
131
158
43
Co.Derry, Ireland
I ride a
Harley Davidson Softail 2021, Yamaha R6 2005
I also pay attention to how the sky is rendered by a camera by its shade of blue in relation to another camera. If necessary I use that for what I'm trying to match when doing color correction in post, but the general rule for me is less is more. The less I have to do, the less off it will look when uploaded to YouTube.

- Wolf

I like this idea of using the sky to match the colouring between cameras, great idea. Thanks for that. Stolen :D

John
 

Drakhen99

The Forrest Gump of Motovloggers
Aug 31, 2020
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I'll often use my Samsung S10 for recording "off the bike footage" when I'm too lazy to remove the GoPro from the helmet. It works very well, honestly I sometimes think the video quality is BETTER than the GoPro's! Sometimes I'll hook up my lav mic to record the audio in the phone too for excellent quality voice recording.

Modern phones can be very handy for filming.

You remove your GoPro from your helmet for off-bike shots? Man, why didn't *I* think of that???

I jest... usually I carry the handle/tripod thing that came with my Hero 8 - it's small, so it fits nicely in my camera case. If I'm in a rush or lazy, I just hold up my helmet and try to keep my thumb out of the frame.

Other considerations would be the color settings of each camera. If you can control them for specific lighting conditions - bright light, low light - to FPS speed, you may have a better chance of matching the look between each camera.

-Wolf

Others mentioned it, but if you set the color temp to a manual value, as @Dewey316 taught me, the camera won't auto-correct for different lighting, so you can apply one color grade to the entire video from that camera and be done. I did this in Davinci Resolve recently, with pretty good results. It added to my workflow and the results weren't [to me] much better than my previous "all auto settings" recording, so I am not sure how often I'll do it. It was fun to do... once.

All that said, I use GoPros for EVERYTHING. I have 3 of them now [8/9/Max], so there's a camera for every shot, and if I'm not using one or the other for on-bike stuff, it's handy and ready to shoot off-bike stuff, then mix & match in Resolve and I've got a video. Just sayin'.

-John
 
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Arfa

Beginner Biker Adventures
Nov 17, 2020
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www.beginnerbiker.com
I ride a
Yamaha FZ6
My last 2 phones have had cameras with optical stabilization. But no worries if you have a cheap phone, like say iPhone :p , some of the stutter can be taken out with video editing programs too. Just master the ninja walk and check for tutorials how to film steady, without steadycam. Most tips you'll find, can be applied to phones too ;)

I have an old phone with no built-in stabilisation, but I picked up a DJI Osmo Mobile 3 gimbal cheap and find this very effective for shooting smooth footage. Also has some nice features like a mini joystick to aim and the option to track an object. However, it's a little bulky and faff to clamp phone in, so I find I don't take it out and use as much as I could. Still, it's an option to consider if they pop up cheap.
 

Theodor

Don't wannabe
Nov 16, 2017
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I have an old phone with no built-in stabilisation, but I picked up a DJI Osmo Mobile 3 gimbal cheap and find this very effective for shooting smooth footage. Also has some nice features like a mini joystick to aim and the option to track an object...
I almost forgot about those. I did consider getting a phone gimball, before my previous phone, but then spent the money on phone instead. I still use my gorillapod type tripod, as a handle, very often, when filming though. It makes holding the phone just so much more ergonomic.
 

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