How To Stabilize GoPro Videos The Right Way [2021 Update]

GoPro is an amazing camera and it can take shots that look absolutely phenomenal. I’ll give you that.

But when you’re into sports you know there will be a lot of camera movement.

And I’m not talking about that smooth, cinematic-looking camera movement. No, I’m talking about those annoying shaky GoPro videos which put viewers off.

Is there any way to fix that?

How can you get smooth GoPro footage?

Will you need a GoPro stabilization mount?

Is there any way to stabilize GoPro videos in the editing stage?

Is there such a thing as the best GoPro stabilization software? Maybe a free one? Does it work on both Windows and Mac?

If you are asking yourself any of these questions you are on the right page. Because we’re answering all of them down below.

Oh, and did I tell you that we are editing videos for clients such as yourself?

So make sure to check that out if you need help with your videos.

Back to the article now.

Why do I need to learn about GoPro video stabilization?

For the first time since the start of the digital revolution, video cameras have become a household accessory.

Most people, some with a higher penchant for creativity and adventure than others, have something interesting and engaging to film, show, and share.

GoPro has made it possible for them to express and showcase their passion and adventurous spirit.

All users employing GoPro to record action and adventure activities such as swimming, skiing, cycling, hiking, surfing, trekking, etc. have a common complaint.

The recorded footage is shaky and jerky. A lot of such complaints come from people using the earlier models of GoPro.

Although the 5K resolution in Hero 9 and Hero 10 deliver better stabilization (as a result of cropping) and come with the latest stabilization software, it’s impossible to avoid shaky videos in the production stage.

During and post-production video stabilization is a must because the built-in stabilization setting is useless in 4K resolution.

The built-in stabilization is of little use in slow motion and low-light filming.

Without a clear strategy to stabilize your recording, you’ll be left with the wobbly and shaky video even in the hyper smooth mode.   

In the production stage

If you want to get the best results you need to start by stabilizing, as much as you can, your GoPro footage when you are shooting.

Yes, you can add some stabilization when you will be editing the video, but if the original video is too shaky, you won’t get much out of it regardless of what editing software you are using.

So try to keep your GoPro as steady as you can and get smoother-looking shots. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but the more stable it is, the easier and better the results will be after you use software stabilization features.

So here are a few tips on how you get smoother GoPro footage.

Use a Gimbal

The first option which will give you the best results is to use a 3-axis Gimbal mount for your GoPro.

GoPro has its own Karma grip which you can use with a Gimbal or you can get one of the many other Gimbal mounts available from other brands.

A Gimbal is a battery-powered device that uses a gyroscope and a motor to keep itself level with the horizon. Some Gimbals also have built-in functions which will move the camera really smooth, such as tilt or pan.

It works wonders. The footage will look super smooth and professional with it. Obviously, the main disadvantage is that a Gimbal will be quite expensive, especially if you are just starting out with filming and you don’t want to invest too much money in it. A decent one will run you $150-$200.

Here’s how it works.

The Pros and Cons of using a gimbal

Pros

• Without a doubt the best production stage equipment to improve stabilization.
• Easy to use and also improves the handling of the camera.

Cons

• Users need a rooted Android or jailbroken iPhone to use the app.
• Yet another battery to charge when you’re outdoors.
• Relatively expensive compared to other stabilization products.

 

 

Using a pole

If you are using a Pole with your GoPro you will love this tip. You know how we all shoot videos by putting the GoPro on the upside of the pole, right? That’s the normal way of doing it because the camera sits upright.

But if you actually put the camera on the downside of the Pole and you flip the video recording to down (or have it set on auto) so that the image is not recorded upside down, you will get much steady and smoother looking videos.

That’s because the weight of the camera will be underneath the Pole and you will be less likely to wobble the Pole as you are trying to balance it from falling either to the left or to the right.

Here’s MicBergsma doing it.

 

 

The Pros and Cons of using a pole to improve video stabilization

Pros

• Affordable; it’s just a fraction of the cost of a gimbal.
• Easily available and plenty of brands to choose from. 

Cons

• Not the best choice to film action and adventure videos.
• Not compact; hence, not easy to carry during your travels.
• Outcome isn’t as good as a gimbal.

Get a mouth or chin mount

Pressing your GoPro against your face will actually work really great.

Maybe not as good as a chicken head, but it will still do a pretty decent job.

 

 

So whenever you have the chance, use a mouth mount or make your own. Here’s a quick and easy DIY GoPro mouth mount tutorial.

 

 

Alternatively, you can simply press your GoPro against the chin and the videos will look much more steady. Apparently, our arms and body are not as steady as our head.

The Pros and Cons of using a pole to improve video stabilization

Pros

• Affordable; it’s just a fraction of the cost of a gimbal.
• Easily available and plenty of brands to choose from. 

Cons

• Not the best choice to film action and adventure videos.
• Not compact; hence, not easy to carry during your travels.
• Outcome isn’t as good as a gimbal.

Build a stabilization rig

These are fairly cheap to build as you can make them out of PVC little pipes. There’s no better way of explaining it than a DIY video, so here it is.

 

 

Use the GoPro built-in stabilization feature

Starting with the GoPro 5, you have available a built-in video stabilization feature that you can use.

The only settings you get to control are the On and Off. Unfortunately, there is no way of controlling the stabilization amount.

The downside of this built-in stabilization feature is that if it doesn’t work well and the footage turns out wobbly, there’s nothing you can do about it. You will be stuck with it.

It works pretty much like any video editing software stabilization does, so why not actually do it in post-production where you can play around with more settings and go back to the initial video if you want.

So personally I am not a big fan of the GoPro built-in video stabilization, but it is there if you want to use it.

The Pros and Cons of using GoPro built-in stabilization

Pros

• Produces a decent result especially at higher resolutions.
• The only option if you don’t have any stabilization equipment or video editing software.

Cons

• Sometimes doesn’t go well with post-production editing process.
• No setting adjustment available.
• Not available in earlier models.

Why video stabilization is a defining feature in GoPro Hero 10 Black and Hero 9 Black?

The introduction of 5K resolution in Hero 9 has done wonders for video stabilization.

The higher resolution ensures the users have a larger area that can be cropped to stabilize the video at the editing stage.

The 5K resolution also means that even after cropping users can export a fairly high-quality video of 4K resolution.

With Hero 10, GoPro has taken video stabilization even a notch higher.

It doesn’t matter, where the camera is placed – on a dog’s back, on a chin mount, or attached to the handle of a bike, the recorded video without any editing will be fairly stable with just mild digital artifacts and distortions.

Users can thank GoPro for the work done on horizon leveling. This has greatly improved video stabilization in Hero 10.

The horizon leveling feature identifies and locks the horizon in a jiffy. This keeps the camera straight even when the users sway and move.

The new GoPro Hero 10 comes with a maximum lock angle of 45 degrees, whereas the Hero 9 will lose the lock if the camera turns more than 27 degrees.

In the post-production stage

Now that you’ve done everything that you possibly can do to keep your GoPro steady, let’s see what else can we tweak and fine-tune in the video editing stage to make to video look smoother.

First and foremost let me tell you that you need to edit your GoPro videos if you want to make them look better. I’m not talking about simply applying stabilization.

I’m talking about making the right cuts, stitching everything together, transitions, and applying the color correction. If you are into traveling (I know many GoPro owners are), you can check out this article over here to learn how you can edit your first travel video.

With that being said, let’s see how you can stabilize your GoPro videos using video editing software.

What video editing software to use?

If you would’ve asked me this question in a different context, I would probably be answering something along the lines of: “To be honest, it doesn’t really matter that much. It’s not about the software you’re using, but about how you are using.“

But if we are solely talking about stabilizing footage, it matters. You see, not all software will be as effective or work as good for stabilizing videos.

Don’t worry. This doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t any free options that will do a good job, ’cause there are.

Here are my top picks.

By the way, both Premiere Pro and Vegas Pro will work with footage from any GoPro alternative camera too.

Adobe Premiere Pro Warp Stabilizer

If you’re a Premiere Pro user you can use the Warp Stabilizer feature to make your videos steadier. It will allow you to smoothen out some of the shakiness in no time.

You can find the Warp Stabilizer tool on the Effects panel. It will be under Video Effects, in the Distort folder.

Once you located it, simply drag it over to the video track you want to stabilize.

You will notice that Adobe Premiere Pro CC will immediately start to do its thing.

Once it is done analyzing each end of every frame of the clip it will show up the stabilized version of it, using the default settings.

You will notice that the footage will look better, and it will be cropped/zoomed in a little bit, depending on how shaky the original footage is.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison between the original handheld footage I shot and the same footage stabilized with the Warp Stabilizer.

 

You have to option to tweak and adjust some of the parameters in the Effects Control tab.

 

Most of the time I only lower the Smoothness if I feel that the video was over-stabilized and it starts to look funny or it is zoomed in too much.

You can also try to select between different Framing options. These will basically tell Premiere Pro how many things to look at when stabilizing the video.

Here’s a nice tutorial put together by Justin, which goes into a bit more detail about how to use the Warp Stabilizer.

 

 

The Pros and Cons of using Premiere Pro for video stabilization

Pros

• Premiere Pro is one of the easiest, highly professional, and widely used video editor.
• The many presets and advanced options in wrap stabilizer can deliver the best result possible.

Cons

• Not the best software to use if the footage is too dark, shaky, and wide.
• The process is CPU consuming which drastically slows the computer.
• Beginners require a long period of time to master stabilization settings and parameters.

Vegas Pro Stabilize

This one works really well, but it is quite taxing on the CPU. So if you plan on using it to stabilize long footage it will take forever to do it.

So Vegas Pro has this built-in feature called Stabilize which you can find under the Video FX tab.

Right here:

For some reason, it doesn’t work like any other video effect within Vegas Pro. So when you try to apply it to your video track you will get this message:

No problem, simply go to Tools, Video and then choose Media FX …

Then pick VEGAS Stabilize, and you are done

After you hit Apply.

Here’s how the stabilized video will look like, compared to the original shaky footage.

 

The original shot was taken by hand holding the camera, so it is fairly shaky. Even so, the Vegas Pro stabilized version looks way better, it is steady and quite smooth.

 

I have used the default settings which will have the Pan smoothing and Stabilization amount set to 0.50 which is half of the maximum. You can play around with these settings based on how shaky the original footage is.

What I’ve noticed is that if you are trying to smooth out footage that is really bad you will end up losing quite a bit of the video quality after Vegas Pro stabilizes the video.

So just like I mentioned in the first part of this post, try to keep your camera as steady as possible.

YouTube Video Editor (FREE)

Nah, just kidding. As you may know, the YouTube Video Editor was shut down starting on the 20th of September of 2017.

It used to do a pretty good job though. So one less free app to stabilize your GoPro videos.

Deshaker plugin for VirtualDub (FREE)

I don’t really use this tool anymore because I like to keep everything either in Vegas Pro or Premiere Pro. But if you don’t have any of these programs, the VirtualDub is a great piece of free video editing software that will do a pretty good job at stabilizing your footage.

Here’s a nice tutorial on how you can use it together with the Deshaker plugin for making your videos look smoother.

You can download VirtualDub from here and the Deshaker plugin from here.

 Definitely, give it a try, and let me know how it works out for you.

Filmora

Filmora is a pretty slick editing software for any kind of footage, but even more so for GoPro users.

With their 8.0 version, they added a feature called Action Cam Tool which is targeted at GoPro users mainly.

Anyway, stabilizing footage with Filmora is like a walk in the park. You just right-click on the video you want to stabilize and pick Video Stabilization.

Here’s how it works.

Filmora has both a free version and a paid, full version which you can get from here.

Is image cropping inevitable during GoPro video stabilization?

Regardless of the method you adopt – built-in stabilization or post-production stabilization using software – there will be slight cropping or zooming. During the stabilization process, you’ll lose the content around the edges.

The stabilization process reduces shaking in the video through three steps:

Estimate motion using Block Motion Vectors (BMV)

Solve the Absolute Motion Vectors (AMV) of reference frame

Remove interferences and make necessary adjustments to produce the desired result.

Also bear in mind that there is no universal algorithm for video stabilization. Hence, expect to see different outcomes with different video editing software. 

Conclusion

So, to recap everything here’s how to shoot smoother footage with your GoPro.

First and foremost you need to keep your GoPro as steady as possible when you are filming. I know that might be hard given that this is a sport, action camera.

But there are a few things you can do: use a gimbal (these are expensive, but they work great), use a pole the right way, build yourself a stabilization rig, use a chin or mouth mount. Or, simply use GoPro’s built-in stabilization feature.

Any of these things will already make a massive improvement in the way your videos will look.

From there, import your GoPro footage into video editing software. It doesn’t matter that much what software you will be using, but I outline the most popular ones above.

Use the stabilizing feature of that video editing software to make your footage look smoother. If you are just starting out with video editing use the default settings and see how the footage looks.

If you feel like you are losing a little bit of video quality as a result of the software stabilization you will need to reduce the amount of stabilization applied to your video.

Software stabilization is a two-edged sword. Just like ISO, too much of it will start to lower the quality of the shot.

That’s why it is extremely important to keep your camera as steady as you can when you are filming.

Leave your comments down below and let me know if this helps.