Lumix G9 with GoPro Fusion mounted

How to Shoot Your Own GoPro POV Street Photography Videos

Lumix G9 with GoPro Fusion mounted
Lumix G9 with GoPro Fusion mounted // my new Street Photography POV Setup

My YouTube channel is mostly popular for my GoPro POV Street Photography Videos. I wanted to do this article to teach you how you can make your own GoPro street photography POV videos– and even explain: why even do them?


Any camera will work.

GoPro Fusion mounted on top of Lumix LX 100 with hotshoe mount
GoPro Fusion mounted on top of Lumix LX 100 with hotshoe mount

First of all, use any camera to shoot street photography. In the past, I’ve shot GoPro POV videos with my RICOH GR II, a Lumix LX 100, Fujifilm X100s, etc.


Essential: GoPro Hotshoe Mount

It doesn’t really matter what camera you decide to shoot your GoPro Street Photography POV videos with. All you need is a hotshot mount (to mount your GoPro on top of your camera).

And this is very important: You need a GoPro Hotshoe Mount (just Google it). This will pair your camera with your GoPro.


Which GoPro should I get?

Honestly use any GoPro. For a long time I used the older GoPro Hero 3, and recently I upgraded to a GoPro Fusion (360/virtual reality camera). GoPro has also recently put a new “HERO” (which is the best ‘bang for the buck’ GoPro). You probably don’t need the newest GoPro.

I personally got the GoPro Fusion to experiment with virtual reality/augmented reality. There is this cool thing on the GoPro fusion called ‘Overcapture’ where you can edit your 360 footage and make it two-dimensional. Just watch the above video, then the below video:

Anyways, if you’re going to use a GoPro Fusion to shoot street photography, I recommend processing your videos on the GoPro app on your iPad/phone (instead of desktop– desktop is too slow).

If you decide to just use a “normal” GoPro — your life will be easier.


Shooting street photography with the GoPro

When you shoot with the GoPro in street photography, this is what I usually do:

  1. Keep your GoPro powered on. When you see a good potential scene that you want to photograph, start recording.
  2. Just shoot street photography as you would like — I usually interact/talk with my subjects. Or sometimes I just shoot candidly.
  3. When you’re done shooting a scene, stop recording.

During a day, shoot a bunch of footage, then head home.


Editing the footage

The tricky thing is to edit your GoPro footage. I personally use iMovie and review my footage and sync the video to the photos manually.

In iMovie, I use the hotkey “Command+B” to use the blade tool to “CUT” parts of my footage, then I just drag my JPEG photos into the footage.

When I am trying to manually sync the videos and the photos, I just re-watch the videos a lot, and follow my gut. The hotkey I use to start/stop playing videos in iMovie is the “SPACEBAR”. This will help speed up your workflow.


Why shoot street photography with your GoPro?

For myself, it is actually fun to record video on the GoPro while shooting street photography, for these reasons:

  1. I am able to re-live the experience of shooting a certain scene, and I can re-live the experience interacting with my subjects. To me, this is fun and enjoyable for the sake of it.
  2. I am able to give a “post-mortem” examination of my shooting: I can learn from my mistakes in my video footage. For example, when reviewing my GoPro POV street photography video footage, I have learned that I often don’t “work the scene” enough in street photography, and I don’t shoot enough. As a reminder, I learn that I must shoot more in street photography and take more risks, and often be more aggressive.
  3. I have more motivation to shoot: Because I am documenting my shooting process, and it is a great teaching tool, I have more motivation to shoot. Why? Because shooting the GoPro POV videos is killing two birds with one stone: I teach my street photography approach (which I think can benefit others), and I can just shoot for myself!

Just have fun!

Anyways I’ve been having so much fun again with video and GoPro. Don’t worry so much about making videos for YouTube that will get a ton of views. Do it for yourself, do it for a few friends/family/followers who might appreciate it, and never stop innovating, experimenting, and discovering new ways of working! There is still so much untapped/unpaved ground in photography, video, and now virtual-reality!

Have fun,
ERIC

NEVER STOP INNOVATING.

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