Have you ever used your GoPro Hero Session to shoot in a low-light scenario?

If yes, then you might have wondered why your GoPro is not very good at low-light photography.

Although your GoPro Hero Session camera is good for shooting your action in high resolutions – such as 4K, the shots during nighttime are usually grainy or noisy.

Thankfully, there are a few settings that you can use to make your GoPro Hero Session low light shots look better.

In this article, you’ll learn what are the best settings for low light on the GoPro Hero Session camera.

 

 

Recommended Low Light Settings for GoPro Hero Session

If you don’t have much time, take a look at this video to learn low light settings:

My SECRET GoPro LOW LIGHT Settings Revealed (All GoPros)

Enable Low Light Mode

The first and the most obvious thing is turning on the GoPro’s built-in Low-Light setting. When you enable it, your camera will automatically adjust the frame rate according to light conditions. This setting is especially helpful in situations where the light is constantly changing, such as during a concert.

However, if you still feel that your shot isn’t looking good enough, you can try some manual settings as given below.

Use Low Frame Rate

Since high FPS isn’t recommended in low light scenes, you should select low frame rates like 24fps, 25fps, or 30fps on your GoPro Hero Session. This slows down the shutter speed and lets more light reach the camera lens.

Increase ISO

As described above, you should use the default 1600 as the ISO Limit for low light shots on your GoPro Hero Session.

Increase EV Comp

Exposure Value Compensation or EV Comp is another factor that affects the brightness of your footage. It works by adjusting brightness within the existing ISO Limit. The default EV Comp value on the GoPro Hero Session is 0. But, in low-light conditions, you can increase exposure compensation, by +1.0. This will result in a significantly brighter image.

In a Nutshell

Recommended GoPro Hero Session Automatic Low Light Setting: Turn On the Low Light Mode

Recommended GoPro Hero Session Manual Low Light Settings:

  • Frame Rate: 24fps / 25fps / 30fps
  • ISO Limit: 1600
  • EV Comp: +1.0

For more details regarding the various GoPro Settings, have a look at this article:

GoPro Settings Explained: Best for Action, Travel & More

 

Factors Affecting GoPro Hero Session Low Light Performance

Firstly, let’s figure out the main factors that influence low light performance on Session.

Aperture

An aperture is, basically, a hole within your camera lens. This hole controls the amount of light that passes through the lens. The size of an aperture is expressed in terms of an “f-number” or “f-stop”. Here’s the full range of aperture values: f/1, f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, f/32, f/44, f/64. The smaller the number, the more the light and the brighter the image.

Please note that this is one parameter that you can’t control on your GoPro Session camera. The aperture of the GoPro Hero Session is fixed to f/2.8. But it is already large enough to let adequate light in.

ISO

ISO Limit adjusts the camera’s sensitivity in low-light environments and creates a balance between brightness and resulting image noise. There are two ISO settings on the GoPro Hero Session:

  • 1600 (default): For Moderately bright video in low light, with moderate image noise
  • 400: Darker video in low light, but reduced image noise

Frame Rate

Frame rate, also known as FPS (frames per second), refers to the number of images taken per second in a video. In the GoPro Hero Session, you can choose from 30fps to 120fps.

Note that high FPS delivers smooth video. But, the higher the frame rate, the lower the amount of light and the darker the resulting image. That’s because when the FPS is increased, the shutter speed will be faster and, therefore, the exposure time of each frame will be shorter. As a result, less light will reach the camera sensor. Therefore, a high frame rate isn’t recommended in low-light situations.

Image Sensor

The image sensor also affects the brightness of the image. The larger the sensor, the brighter the image. But, again, this is something you can’t control on your GoPro Hero Session. Its sensor size is 1/2.3″.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

I hope this guide helped you learn about the best settings for low-light on the GoPro Hero Session camera 🙂

 

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