6 Helpful Tips for Using Your GoPro While Hiking

Hiking is one of the most enjoyable outdoor recreation activities that can allow you to disconnect from the hectic reality of everyday life and immerse in the pleasant and peaceful surroundings of nature. Whether you’re alone or in the good company of others, taking a GoPro camera with you is a perfect tool for capturing your journey plus the beautiful scenery as it is lightweight and easy to use. Here are helpful tips that you can take note of to make the best out of documenting your hiking experience with the GoPro:

Carry Extra Batteries

Hiking can be a long process that may take you hours or even several days, so it is important to bring an extra set of batteries just in case. Most GoPro batteries only last a couple of hours, and if you are filming videos in 4K quality, you might only be able to use it for around 70 minutes straight. With this, if you plan on filming everything about your journey from sunrise to sunset, you will need more than just one battery. If you don’t have extra batteries, you can opt to bring a power bank with you so you can charge while you are on the go.

Adjust your camera settings

To ensure you get perfect, high-quality shots, you can adjust your GoPro’s video and photo settings before you start your hiking journey. Different experts might tell you different advice so just experiment and find out what works best for you. Here are the recommended GoPro settings so far that you can look into:

  • Use 30 fps
  • Enable image stabilization
  • Use 4K60 4:3, Wide Lens or Use 4K30, 4:3
  • Enable 15x Time Warp Video. 

Bring a few different mounts 

To make your shots more creative you can play with different angles by bringing different kinds of mounts. You can try moving your GoPro from a backpack strap to a selfie stick, or maybe a 3-way grip that can also act as an extension arm for selfies, group photos, or vlogs and can be suitable for action-packed shots. This can allow you to have better-looking point-of-view footage that can capture your amazing background. 

Use a stabilizing gimbal 

The last thing you want to see in your footage is the distracting movements of the camera which can way side to side or move up and down as you walk. To take out the shaky effect in your footage, you can get yourself a stabilizing gimbal that can make your videos look smooth and professional with that gliding effect. One great example would be the GoPro Karma grip that can be used as a handheld mount.

Avoid filming at noontime 

Other than making sure your camera settings and gears are ready, it is also important to make sure that you are protecting your equipment from damage, specifically in this case, from the harsh rays of sunlight. Aside from that, shooting footage at noontime with the sunlight directly overhead can also hamper the quality and clarity of your shots. For better results, try to shoot in either morning or afternoon, most especially during the sunset or better known as the golden hour since light appears much softer. This can also add a more dramatic effect on your photo and videos which can effectively show what time of the day you took the shot. 

Capture photos through videos

As mentioned earlier, the hiking process can be long and challenging so you might want to focus on your journey and avoid wasting minutes of your time along the way just to stop over and take photos. Unless you’re really capturing an important subject, you can just continue filming with your GoPro camera and by the time you get back home from your hike, you can just grab still shots from your videos via the GoPro app. Don’t worry, doing this won’t ruin the quality of the photos. In addition, this will help you capture rare moments where you would not have been fast enough to take a snap of them.

Whether you’re a blogger, vlogger, or just a person who wants to preserve their happy memories while hiking, it would be nice to think of filming with your GoPro as if you are storytelling. If you’re a blogger/vlogger, think about your audience and figure out what fun and important things they would like to know about your hike. If you’re just filming for personal purposes, think of your loved ones or yourself ten years from now and imagine what details of your journey you would have wanted to reminisce about. Shoot all the aspects of your hiking experience that you find important whether it is the food, the scenery, your outfit, the animals, funny experiences, and more.