Capturing a still from a digital video?

[labdogs42]

Sorry this is totally non-Disney related, but I have a photography question. I accidentally left my digital camrea (Fugi Finepix V10) in video mode when shooting what I wanted to be a picture last night for trick or treat. Is there a way to turn a frame of this video into a still picture? I'm not particularly savvy when it comes to this kind of stuff yet. I have PSE 3.0 -- can I use that to do soemthing like this? Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[handicap18]

Though I have not done it, Quick Time has a feature that allows you to take a snapshot of video and convert it to a JPEG. I don't know what the quality will be like. I'm guessing it would be pretty low if its video from a digital still camera. But you never know.

I'm sure there are others out there as well, but many people already have quick time on their computers from downloading other software. If not, its a free download from apple.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I can't recommend any specific software to do this. I'm pretty sure that you can do it with most video editing software, but I can't confirm that.

An easier option would be to look at your playback software and see if it can do a screen capture. I use PowerDVD for watching video on my home office computer and it captures a still to the clipboard by pressing the "C" button while watching.

You might have a problem if your subject is moving and your camera shoots video in interlaced mode. Most video that you see is interlaced. When they "draw" a picture on the screen, they draw every other line. The next time they "draw" a picture, they draw the other lines. This happens so fast that you don't notice the difference while you are watching it. However, if you try to create a still picture, it needs to combine two frames together to get all of the lines. If your subject is moving, it will be in a different place in each of the frames. The result is that your subject looks blurry.

 

[seashoreCM]

Do be aware that the effective megapixel rating of a still extracted from a video is typically a third of a megapixel (640x480), sometimes somewhat less than 1/3 megapixel (320x240 or 640x240).