Extract Photos from Video for Hard-To-Capture Action Shots

As photographers, we're usually trained to think in terms of still images. We choose our composition, set our exposure, focus on the subject, and wait for the right moment to press the shutter. But sometimes, the hardest part is knowing when the action is going to happen.

For certain difficult-to-capture moments, I sometimes stop taking still photographs and switch my camera to video instead. Later, I can scrub through the footage and extract a single frame that captures the moment I was looking for. To learn more about this technique, watch the video below.

https://youtu.be/U6MM2RfaSNU

If you have any trouble watching the video above, you can also watch it here. 

This isn't something I recommend using all the time. In most situations, your camera's photo mode will give you better image quality and a more efficient way to photograph action. In fact, many cameras are optimized for capturing action sequences, and they are very good at what they do! But when the timing of an event is unpredictable, shooting video instead can give you a useful advantage.

When Video Makes Sense

One situation where I find this particularly useful is when I'm photographing relatively static wildlife and waiting for a spontaneous yet completely unpredictable moment. Imagine you're photographing an animal that's resting. You know it might suddenly yawn, stretch, stand up, or strike an interesting pose, but you don't know exactly when it's going to happen. You could sit there with your eye to the viewfinder and your finger on the shutter button for a very long time waiting for that moment.

And then, of course, the animal might do something interesting the instant you take a break or look away! This has happened to me more than I care to admit. Cameras with a pre-capture feature might increase your chances of getting the shot, but even then it can be easy to miss the moment, and you're still uncomfortably hunched over your camera for the entire time you're waiting.

In a situation like this, I'll sometimes record video instead. I still have to pay attention to what's happening, but I don't have to maintain the same level of concentration as I would while waiting to fire a burst of still images. When that moment I've been waiting for finally happens, I can stop recording and later look through the footage for the precise frame I want.

An Advantage for Drone Photography

I also find this technique particularly useful with drones. A drone doesn't give you the same rapid-fire shooting capabilities as a modern mirrorless camera. If I'm photographing a flock of shore birds from above and waiting for one of them to fly in and land among the others, for example, the timing can be extremely difficult. By the time I see the bird approaching on the live feed and react by pressing the shutter, the moment may already be gone. Instead, I can hover at a distance and wait while recording.

I've used this technique with white pelicans that gather on rivers and lakes during the summer in my home state of Minnesota. I might spend several minutes waiting for one or two birds to fly into the flock. Rather than trying to anticipate exactly when that will happen—and risk missing the moment—I'll record the sequence and then find the best frame afterward. That way, I never miss the action.

That's a situation where video can give me something that a conventional burst of still photographs can't easily provide: continuous coverage while waiting for an unpredictable moment.

Daylight Lightning Is Another Example

Lightning presents a similar problem. At night, photographing lightning is relatively straightforward because you can use long exposures. If you're taking a bunch of 30-second exposures, capturing lightning is relatively easy. During the day, however, the scene is much brighter, and you don't have the same luxury of using very long shutter speeds.

Lightning also happens far too quickly for you to see the bolt, react, and press the shutter at exactly the right moment. A dedicated lightning trigger is an excellent solution because it can detect the lightning and trigger the camera automatically. But if I don't have one with me, video provides another option.

This is especially useful with a drone, since there isn't a conventional lightning trigger that you can simply attach and use with it. Recording video is your only option for capturing photos of lightning with a drone.

The Quality Tradeoff

There is, however, an important compromise. A frame extracted from video isn't going to give you the same image quality as a raw still photo. Video may use a cropped portion of the sensor, and the footage is often compressed to make files sizes more manageable, which further compromises quality. So even though many digital cameras can record impressive 6K or 8K video, that doesn't necessarily mean you're getting the equivalent of a 6K or 8K raw photograph.

For this reason, I consider video-to-still extraction a specialized technique rather than a replacement for normal still photography. The higher the video resolution, the better your extracted frame will generally be. I prefer 6K or 8K when available, as I find these give me very usable results. Although not as good, 4K can still produce a reasonably good image. HD video, on the other hand, generally doesn't give you enough resolution for a high-quality still.

So there's a simple rule: use video when the benefit of capturing the moment outweighs the loss in image quality.

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Don't Overlook Your Memory Card

High-resolution video puts very different demands on your memory cards than ordinary still photography. When you're recording 6K or 8K footage, the camera needs to write a large amount of data continuously, so having a fast, reliable card is essential.

For my Sony A7R V, I use a Delkin Devices Black CFexpress card, and with my Mavic 4 Pro drone, I use Delkin's Drone microSD cards. I've found them to be fast and reliable for both my photography and video work.

No matter what kind of card you use, make sure it meets the speed and capacity requirements specified by your camera or drone. A card that's fine for still photography may not necessarily be suitable for the particular high-resolution video mode you're using. Get the right card for the job, and then test it out beforehand to ensure it can handle your high resolution video recordings.

A Few Settings Matter

If you're going to use this technique, you can't simply press the record button and forget about your camera settings. To start off, you'll want to select the video settings that will give you maximum quality, resolution and dynamic range, which will optimize flexibility for editing later. These settings vary by camera, so research your particular model to figure out which video formats and color profiles will give you the best results.

There are two settings in particular that are very important: frame rate and shutter speed. Please keep in mind, however, that what might be preferred for capturing smooth, cinematic video is often different than what you will need to capture video with individual frames that are sharp enough for still photo extraction.

Frame Rate

The frame rate of your video is your first consideration. Standard frame rate options for video include 24, 30, and 60 fps. Frame rate is just a measure of how many frames per second the video records. What's the difference? If you end goal is capturing good video, then 24 fps is preferred for movies, 30 fps for many TV shows and online videos, and higher frame rates like 60 fps are used for capturing slow-motion video. But, since your goal is to extract high-quality still images, you'll be thinking about frame rate differently—you won't be worrying about how frame rate will affect the look of your video. Instead, you'll be thinking about it the same way you think about frame rate when taking photos.

Even the standard lowest setting for video of 24 fps is blazingly fast for photography. I remember the days when action cameras maxed out at 10 fps! Many mirrorless cameras today are capable of capturing much high frame rates, but in any event, 24 fps is pretty darn fast. When my goal is to simply use video to capture action stills, I typically use 24 or 30 frames per second, which is often more than enough for most action sequences. I'll only consider 60 fps when I'm dealing with particularly fast action and want more opportunities to capture a very precise moment. Just remember, 60 fps will result in larger video files compared to 30 or 24, so keep that in mind when choosing your frame rate; if you don't need the higher rate, don't use it.

Shutter Speed

Next, you'll need to select a shutter speed. Once again, your preferred shutter speed for still extraction will often be different than if you're trying to produce high-quality video.

If your priority is producing smooth, cinematic video, you'll generally want a slower shutter speed that will introduce some motion blur into each frame, which makes the video look better. The standard is to use a shutter speed that is twice your frame rate, so if your frame rate is 30 fps, then the shutter speed you'd use is 1/60 second.

But if your ultimate goal is to extract a sharp still image of fast-moving action, you'll want a much faster shutter speed. Basically, you'll be using the same shutter speed settings that you would if you were shooting photos instead of video. If I'm trying to capture birds in flight, for example, I'll use a fast shutter speed like 1/500 or 1/1000 second, just like I would if I were taking photos.

Keep Your Video Files Manageable

There's another practical issue with this technique: video files can get very large. If I'm waiting a long time for something to happen, I don't necessarily want to record one continuous 10- or 15-minute clip. Instead, I'll often record shorter clips, stop, and then start again. Just make sure to do your stop and start as fast as possible, and be strategic about it; you don't want to miss the perfect moment you've been waiting for!

That way, once I've captured the moment, I can quickly identify the useful clip and delete the others. You can also delete the original video after extracting your stills if you don't think you'll ever need it again. Personally, I often like to keep the successful clip around. Storage is relatively inexpensive compared with the possibility that I might someday want to go back and extract a different frame from the sequence.

Extracting & Editing the Still

Once you've captured your video, finding the still image is fairly straightforward. You can scrub through the footage in a standard media player (more on that later) or video-editing program until you find the frame you want. From there, you can export that frame as an image file, or copy and paste it into a new Photoshop file for editing.

If you already work with video software such as Premiere Pro, you can use that to export a still frame, and then bring the resulting file into Lightroom or Camera Raw for your normal photo-editing workflow if you prefer. If you're copying a frame from a standard media player, then you will have to edit in Photoshop (since you can't copy and paste into Lightroom).

You can also open video files directly into Photoshop. When you do so, you'll notice a timeline at the bottom of the video that allows you to scrub through the video to find the perfect frame. Once you've found the frame you want to extract, you can go to Select > All, and then Edit > Copy. Then, go to File > New, which will automatically paste the extraction frame that's in your clipboard into a new Photoshop document. Then edit as you see fit!

Extracting the Still - VLC, QuickTime Player, and Movies & TV

If you want a free option that works across platforms, VLC Media Player has a built-in snapshot function. Open your video, pause at the frame you want, and choose Video > Take Snapshot. VLC saves the captured frame as a PNG image, and it saves snapshots to your Pictures folder by default. VLC is particularly useful if you don't already have Photoshop or a video-editing program installed. It gives you a quick way to turn a frame from your video into an image that you can then open in Lightroom, Camera Raw, or another photo editor.

If you're a Mac user, you can use QuickTime Player (which is Mac's default media player, there's no need to download it) to do the same thing, but the images won't be saved in your folder automatically. After finding the frame you want to extract, go to Edit > Copy, and paste it into Photoshop.

If you're a Windows user, you can use the default Movies & TV app. Open your video in the app, click on the Edit icon at the bottom of the screen, and select 'Save Photo From Video'. The Photos app will open. There, you can use the arrows to select a frame. When you're ready, click on the Save A Photo button to get a still image.

Conclusion

Shooting video to extract still photographs is a specialized technique, but it's one that's worth having in your toolkit. You never know when it might help you come away with a photograph that would otherwise have been nearly impossible to capture.

What do you think of this technique? Let me know in the comments!