John Hockemeier
Have you taken videos of your travels, of the grandkids and other interesting topics? Wouldn’t it be nice to select individual frames of some memorable scenes so you can view them whenever you want without having to show the video every time? Probably the more experienced videographers know how to do this. Can the rest of us do this?
Yes, we can and by using our computers we can do it whether we use a PC, a Mac or a Tablet, there’s an app for that! I’ll cover a Microsoft Windows program and an iPad app that can extract single frames from a video recording.
We’ll start with a program called Windows Live Movie Maker by Microsoft and present it in steps.
1. From the PC home screen, click start.
2. Select All Programs
3. Scroll to find and click Windows Live Movie Maker.
4. Windows opens the Movie Maker page.
5. In the right pane, click here to browse for videos and photos.
6. Your data folders including photos, videos and other files appear. Select the desired video.
7. The video will appear in the small display screen in the left pane.
8. The video can be played by clicking the blue arrow below the screen or by left clicking and dragging the small bug just above the blue arrows. Each frame of the video will appear.
9. After the desired frame appears, look for the Snapshot icon or label in the ribbon or band at the top of the screen. Click on Snapshot. This action saves the frame.
10. A portion of your data folder appears with the path to the Snapshot photo, e.g., Data (D:)>Videos>Users. If the filename is acceptable, click on Save.
11. To locate the photo, follow the path created in step 10.
12. The image can now be treated as any other photo including editing and printing.
To perform the same objective using an iPad and a special App, follow the following steps:
1. Go to the Apps Store on the iPad.
2. Enter Snapstill in the search window at top of page.
3. Download app, it’s free. Open the app.
4. Snapstill searches for, finds and displays all videos on the iPad.
5. Select and touch a video.
6. The video appears along with a filmstrip at bottom of page.
7. Using finger or stylus, slide filmstrip toward left until desired frame appears.
8. Touch blue circle containing a camera icon to capture the frame.
9. Image will be saved to the iPad Photo page next to the original video.
10. If desired, touch option box on lower left to select other choices such as email, Twitter or print, etc.
Now you can add images that have been hidden in a treasured video to your photo albums.
If you would like to go over this process with one of the Computer Club instructors, just come to the computer lab during one of our Help Clinics. We will try to help with this or other questions you may have. Bring your own computer or use one of ours.