[Closed] Reducing GoPro Footage Shake.

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That's your problem...

Thought so

Part of the problem is that the handlebar/stem/frame take up most of the focal point of the composition. The horizon, which is where the eye naturally wants to go, is very narrow and is consistently obliterated by the handlebar. If you tilt the camera up a bit it will make the shot much more viewable. Any kind of stabilisation will end up cropping the shot as the software produces a non-shaky reframe from the central area of the image. Shooting 4K means that you'll be able to retain good resolution, probably 2.5K or 1080. I'd try moving the camera first, which really will reduce the effect of the camera movement, then look for something like Adobe Premiere or similar with decent stabilisation.

On those chest harness's you've no chance.
I've seen and played with a little powered gimble that was adapted for a go pro. That was very good. Have a look on eBay, there's a few around
I'd love to see the results of one attached to a bike.

Try downloading microsofts hyperlapse software and run it through that. I find that sometimes it performs a miracle, sometimes it looks terrible, but worth a try.

Is that hyperlapse software available? Last time I looked(ages ago) I thought it was just a pipe dream.

I wonder how the footage would of looked from a handlebar mount which should be more solid.

I don't tend to film myself unless I'm doing something I want to watch back when I'm old and grey.

A free trial version is out, it watermarks the output. Great fun to play with.

This is totally unhelpful, because I can't remember which image stabiliser software I used, but it was pretty effective. Did lead to a smaller image (because that's how it works) but made some unwatchable footage good.

With the chest harness, mostly it's about making sure it's tight enough and aimed high enough- it's probably the most naturally stable camera location

Using the wide angle setting helps to reduce the shaking but the only thing that really works is a helmet mount. Best option for sure.

arg! NW- if you can rack your brains, I'd really appreciate it! Just sitting down to edit some of mine - snowboard stuff with a bouncy elastic head mount. Moved to hand-held /pole mounted after I realised how bouncy it was.

OK, it looks like I used a Deshaker plugin for vegas 10. Not 100% on that, I just used what teh internets told me to, but it looks like it. I think deshaker's available as a standalone though?

hmm. Vegas 10 is the editing software you used? I've got GoPro Studio and Adobe Premiere elements

Is it more stable mounted to a helmet then? I was only really using the chest mount as I have run out of curved mounts and cba to buy any more for my full face helmet as they only come in a pack of 6 (3 curved and 3 flat that won't work on any of my helmets)

Far more stable and well worth doing. Only mount I bother with.

All the videos I've seen helmet mounted seem far more stable. However they also seem slower or less dramatic due to higher up angle.

Also a few people have warned about landing on the chest mount, whether there's a camera on it at the time or not. It's going to hurt, a lot.

Crop the handlebar out of it and try running it through Microsoft's new Hyperlapse program at 1x (or whatever).

I don't find helmet more stable- you get more fore/aft movement which is pretty seasicky. Chest mount will tend to have more natural feeling bike-ish movement which detracts less from the video. But with the straps done up right it's pretty solid.

(lots of people do the "mount it upside down" thing on the chest, which does increase flap, though)

Switch to Sony cameras. Pretty decent stabilisation built in.

Stabilisation I use is in the video editing software. Using 4k or 2k footage gives you some leeway to zoom in and try to let it bounce the footage to remove the lumps.

Oops, wrong thread

mikey-simmo - Member
Stabilisation I use is in the video editing software.

What software are you using, Mikey?

andysredmini - Member

I wonder how the footage would of looked from a handlebar mount which should be more solid.

Equipment mounts are generally a lot more shaky than body mounts, as they take vibrations from the bike. The only time I've had one not do that is when I CNCed a massive double clamp to mount a camera on some fork lowers (Bar mounts also tend to look terrible, as without any of the bike or rider in frame to contextualise the shot, it gives little sense of scale or speed).

Head mounts suffer on rough trails unless you have a strong neck. With a chest mount, you either tighten it down to the point where it's a little bit uncomfortable, or construct a harness with a longer baseplate to give the camera a more stable base.

If you have a belly and moobs you won't get the chest mount shake free. The tighter the better, but it doesn't look as bad as some I have seen, could do with pointing the cam up slightly, but not much.

Have you tried Premiere Elements Video Stabilizer?

I've got premier elements which is cheap and easy, final cut pro which isn't. And I use Avid media composer which is as good as the brakes.
Premier is the easiest to get half descent results out of cheaply.

I thought there were issues getting mp4 go-pro footage into elements?

Or are you using a different camera?

The only problem I've seen with gopro footage and premiere is that it doesn't handle 47.95fps. Other frame rates should work fine.

GoPro chest/helmet shots of trails are all untrendy now anyway (and often boring). You should have a drone to follow you now 😉

I find some mounts on the bike look very stable. This is on the seatpost.

Backwards off seatpost tends to be quite stable too. I've never had good footage off a bar mount though.

This was some testing of the fork lower mount I made, but it was a massive clamp over a wrap of electrical tape, then a custom camera case secured to it by four bolts: