How To Capture the Night Sky with HERO6 Black

tools of the trade

Oct 12, 2017

The elusive Milky Way is just a few clicks away with the new GoPro HERO6 Black.

GoPro introduced Night Photo and Night Lapse capability with the HERO4 cameras, and since then our users have been capturing amazing content with those modes. Now powered with the GP1 chip, the new HERO6 Black takes those modes to the next level, giving you the power to capture the best Night photos yet.

Just got a new H6? Here are few tips from GoPro Engineering Tools Specialist

and night photo enthusiast Shreenivasan Manievannan on how to get to capture the most illuminous shots of the expansive evening sky.

night photo by Shreenivasan Manievannan

CAMERA SETUP

Your new HERO6 Black features a touch display on the back of the camera, and with just a couple quick gestures, you will be ready to snap away. So, once the sun has retreated behind the horizon, turn your camera on and follow the steps below.

Set your camera to Night Photo or Night Lapse Photo mode (bottom left moe option on touch display)

If Night Time Lapse, set the interval to Auto

Change the Shutter Speed to be at 30s (to capture maximum light)

Swipe left to reveal Protune Settings

Update the options: White Balance-4000K (Optimal for majority of the situation), Min and Max ISO-800, Sharpness-Low, and Color to either Flat or GoPro Color

No need to worry about focal point, as its all infinite focus and your stars will be crispy clear. Also, the sensor is almost ISO invariant after ISO 800, and the RAW files store a robust amount of information that you can extract during post processing. You can even increase your exposure levels to +2 to get to ISO 3200 equivalent.

night photo by Shreenivasan Manievannan

GETTING THE SHOT

Once your settings are dialed, find a spot to set your GoPro (preferably tripod-mounted) and frame in your shot. Make sure the camera is positioned where it will not move while it captures shots. Frame your shot as you wish, and press the shutter.

Pro Tip: Creative lighting can take your photo to a whole new level. Play around with your flash lights or frame the camp fire into your shot; you will be surprised on the amount of details this small camera can produce. Also, if shooting time lapses, making a star trail out of it is a great option, too. After you have captured the photos, you will be able to stack everything to one photo (as shown in top photo), which will also enhance all the shadow details as well. And of course, you can create nice time-lapse sequences of the photos you have just taken and render it to a 4K quality video with Quik for desktop.

Editing

If you choose to capture your images in RAW (.GPR), you can use a photo editor like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. If you do, try using the GoPro profile to automatically adjust distortions and vignetting and apply Noise Reduction appropriately to make it look great.

Remember, there are no rules, and lots of options are available in Photo mode, so play around and see what you get!

Dont have a HERO6 yet? Thats okay; you can still use the tips above to caputre some great shots with your HERO4 or HERO5.

Stay tuned for more tips from GoPro staff, and in the meantime check out Shreenivasan Manievannan on Instagram!

LINK:	http://gopro.com/news/how-to-capture-the-night-sky...
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