Canon 60D + Gopro footage

[Phil Gosselin]

Hi,

I am planning an event where my main camera will be my 60D, but I will also have a Gopro on hand. For the shooting part I am fine, it is the Post that scares me a bit. Am I facing hours of color correction or is the Gopro now that sophisticated that both footage will blend in nicely with a touch of CC here and there?

Have you had to mix both in the past, how did it turn out?
Any footage you can lead me to?

Thanks

[Justin Molush]

Assuming you lock in the white balance on both your cameras, you shouldn't have to be spending hours color correcting it. Just Copy/paste effects/profiles.

Hero3s and DSLRs cut together just fine. Mimicing DOF is another story.

[Phil Gosselin]

Thanks Justin!

I actually once mixed RED and Gopro together back when it recorded in motion jpg at 320x240. It didn't matter since the Gopro footage was to be put in B&W with many other effects. Pretty much nobody saw the difference.

This time around I need the footage to match so I wanted to make sure. As for the wide FOV, I just watched a video of the included software that does the trick, or do you know a better way?

[Justin Molush]

I pretty much use gopros as lockdown timelapses and from angles where people expect gopros to be placed so it is pretty seamless. In both people expect deep DOF regardless. Depending on what you are shooting it might be difficult to get away with it not looking like a crappy B-Cam. I wouldn't try cutting to a GoPro on wedding shoots and the like if your shooting S35 with all primes etc. Depends on what your shooting.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Phil

I always place a GoPro at weddings regardless. Sometimes it doesn't cope if there is backlighting but otherwise the footage is really useful especially if another (or both cameras) get blocked. I find that setting it on medium POV and putting it up about 8' in the air works well and certainly no WB issues either...It matches well with both my Sony's which have APSC sensors so there is no reason why you should have any major CC issues. Maybe a little tweak or two at the most.

I must admit it's not footage I rely on and sometimes I do need to simply scrap the footage especially if it has been overexposed cos it was facing bright water from a shady area! If you plan to run it outdoors and the humidity is high then make sure you use a skeleton case not a waterproof case as it fogs up in the latter quite quickly!! My skeleton case also has the front dome removed plus I drilled a few holes in the case to let out any hot air and since then have had no problems

Chris

[Phil Gosselin]

Well, I would most likely try to get unconventional shots so that I can have bigger variety in post, such as:

-Stick it on the limousine to catch the approach of the church
-On the balcony so that I have a wide shot of the bride's entrance
-Put it on a guest during the dance party
Etc.

Have read a bit more and found out about Protune, which allow me to set the WB in post, which is neat. What do you guys do for the FOV, aside from reducing it in the settings? Do you also use GoPro software to get rid of it?

Thanks

[Peter Riding]

Like Chris I make frequent use of Gopro footage. I would say there is nothing to be scared of.

I used Protune for a while but found it was more trouble than it was worth for my purposes. Coming from a long photographic background it was counter-intuitive to me to not use Protune just as I wouldn't dream of not shooting RAW files for stills. Protune gives you a very flat file which can be pushed around a lot in post; but at the expensive of file size and slowing your NLE playback to a crawl in multicam editing.

Now I'm back to simply using the original file format and bringing down the contrast and saturation a bit in post. I do NOT edit in cineform studio because its easy to get confusing results when your NLE reads the edits direct from Studio. I think Studio is really for users who do not have access to a full on NLE. Protune and Studio would be more attractive if the Gopro is the only cam being used and you want quick quality results.

Chances are you're shooting with a flat profile with the 60D. Therefore expect to see a noticeable difference between the straight out the cam footage from the Gopro and the 60D side by side, but you'll be unlucky if you can't get an acceptable match.

Most users would only be using gopro footage of a few seconds at a time so that makes any residual mismatches less jarring.

Pete

[Phil Gosselin]

Thanks Peter,

Would you say then that you stop using Protune solely because of your multicam issue?

I won't use multicam so that won't be an issue for me. If you do not use the included editing software how to you get around of reducing the fish eye effect? Do you simply crop out the effect and keep the rest or use it as is?

This question is the crucial one for me. I hate the fish eye effect and it doesn't fit at all with my style. As simple as it looked to use the Cineform suite to remove it is still one more step in the workflow. I edit in Vegas and if there is a neat trick (aside from the obvious crop) to correct the FOV please let me know.

Thanks