Master the Modes: New HERO11 Night Effects

New year, new camera, new tricks, amirite? The new HERO11 Black and HERO11 Black Mini aren’t just video monsters, they’ve also got some artistic prowess that they’d like to flex. The latest GoPros have three new Night Effects modes that appear to bend the very fabric of time as we know it.

Today, we’re doing a deep dive on these three new modes. We’ll explain what they are, why you should use them, and how you can get the best results. Let’s goooo!

What are the night effects modes?

Put simply, there are three new night effects modes:

1. Star Trails
2. Light Painting
3. Vehicle Light Trails

Basically, the camera takes a series of long exposure photos and composites them together into one image or video file. This is the kind of wizardry that night photographers do all the time in post-production, but it typically takes them a fair amount of manual labor or at minimum some hefty computing power, especially in the case of star trails. Not anymore! The HERO11 Black line does all of that instantly, and right in the camera so you can review it right away.

Not only that, but instead of just spitting out a plain image, the camera gives you a video! Essentially it creates an animation of all the layers of images that get stacked onto each other, so you can see how it came together, and you can share the video itself, or using the GoPro Quik app, you can just snag the perfect screen grab and share it as a still.

PRO TIP: For all three Night Effects, you have the option to choose 4K or 5.3K. When in doubt, go big. If you’re pulling screengrabs from the resulting 5.3K video, it will net you a crispy 15.8 megapixel (MP) still image vs. 8MP from a 4K video.

While each of the new modes work similarly to each other, there are some variations between them, as well as some recommended techniques for each of them. Let’s talk about what they have in common first.

Aside from resolution, mentioned above, there are a few main parameters that you might want to adjust if you’re trying to go pro (as they say): Shutter, ISO and Trail Length.

Let’s start with Shutter.

You may also want to adjust the ISO

The other most important parameter you can tweak is Trail Length.

Pro Tip: For all three of these modes, wobble, vibration, or really any movement of the camera itself is the enemy. You want to have your GoPro securely mounted to a tripod or at least a stable surface. These modes all have Scheduled Capture and Timer options, and you should use them! Timer is our recommendation, so you can set the GoPro to start capture three seconds after you press the shutter button. This eliminates extra movement (albeit unintentional) from the initial press and any accidental bumpage.

The following are the best practices for capturing with HERO11 Night Effects.

Star Trails

While all three of the new modes are cool, Star Trails might just be the cooooolest. Stacking photos of the night sky in post can be a real pain, and all the work doesn’t necessarily guarantee a slick animated video. Star trails, in general, are created by the rotation of the Earth, so if you can find the North Star, you will notice that all of the other stars in the sky swirl around it. Its art meets SCIENCE! Seriously, HERO11 uses the Earth’s rotation to help create Star Trails.

Star Trails are super simple. All you have to do is find a space with a relatively clear view of the night sky, select your Trail Length and press record.

For Trail Length, we recommend going with Long or Max. As the name suggests, this will give you nice, long streaks that create some sweet arcs across the sky. Alternatively, Short will create an interesting effect where it looks like each star is a comet with a tail, but it won’t be as good for saving a still photo later.

PRO TIP: If you are looking to offset an exceptionally dark sky, play with Shutter and ISO settings. You’ll likely get the best results if you set the shutter to a full 30 seconds. And depending on how that looks, you can also crank the ISO up to 800 or even 1,600.

A Star Trails capture may take 20 minutes or even multiple hours, depending on the trail length you chose. We recommend doing a quick test shot before committing. The last thing you want to do is shoot for a long time and then check your camera, only to find that the whole scene was blown out or too dark. Instead, shoot for just a minute and then stop and take a look at the image and tweak settings accordingly.

Light Painting

This one is a classic. If you’ve played with long exposure photography at night, then you’ve probably tried writing your name or drawing a smiley-face with a flashlight. The HERO11 Black (and Mini) take that to the next level. First, it eliminates having to scramble and write (backwards) super quickly, because you can set the duration to as long as you want (including no limit) and just hit the stop button when you’re done. Second, again, it makes a really slick video that shows your light painting being created.

Like Star Trails, all you have to do is find an appropriate space with a clear view of the subject, select your Trail Length and press record. Or, if you’re feeling fancy, you can set a Duration Capture to record for a set amount of time.

Then it’s up to you to get creative … You can use flashlights, phone screens, lighters, sparklers, poi or really just about anything that gives off light. Write words, draw pictures, dance around. The more you play with it, the more awesome your content will look no matter what.

PRO TIP: Frame grabs of your finished Light Painting creation, especially if it’s a word, are really awesome for sharing. Because of this, we recommend selecting Max Trail Length. Also, you’ll get a fun animated video effect if you lower the Shutter to 0.5 seconds. Both of these are great tips to differentiate your Light Painting content!

Vehicle Light Trails

Last, but certainly not least, we have the Vehicle Light Trails mode. Think long, streaky headlights and taillights zooming down the road, showing speed and motion in a still image (or watch them zoom along like meteors in a video).

Vehicle lights are one of the scenarios where you probably don’t want to push it to Max Trail Length. If you’re capturing a busy intersection, all of those headlights will pile up quickly and become a blurry mess. It’s better to start with Short trails and go from there, especially if you’re ideal outcome is a video.

PRO TIP: If youend up with an over-exposed, bright mess of a video, start playing with Shutter and ISO settings. You’ll find that a quick Shutter and lower ISO can help tone down the intensity of the lights.

Ultimately, the most important thing you can do with these new modes is to play! Experiment. Take some risks. These features are powerful, they yield incredible results, and they’re brand new and exclusive to the HERO11 Black lineup, so they’re practically guaranteed to make your footage stand out from the crowd. We can't wait to see what you create with them!

Want to learn more? Read the Ultimate Guide to HERO11 Black.