Many times, when we are viewing a video, we would like to capture a small fragment of it, a single image, and save it in the gallery. The most rudimentary method to carry out this operation is to take a screenshot, but by doing this we do not always get the result we are looking for. There are other more effective ways to take photos from a video, as we show you below.
The great problem to be solved is none other than that of quality. When we resort to the classic screenshot, the frame obtained does not exactly offer an optimal resolution. It happens, for example, when capturing an image in full motion: it is almost impossible to capture the precise moment in which the image is completely static. It is almost inevitable to get a blurry photo. Fortunately, there are other ways to do it. And from any device: PC, tablet or smartphone.
In our review you will find interesting online solutions, but also some very practical programs and applications to carry out this work:
The online option: Apowersoft
Apowersoft is a website to capture photos from videos for free and safely (all uploaded videos are deleted in a matter of hours).
Its use is tremendously easy. Simply access the web and, once on it, upload the video or drag it from our files to the central box for playback. We stop the video at the desired moment by clicking with the mouse; To finish, we use the download icon to save the captured image.
Link: Apowersoft
From the PC
If we use a Windows computer, we will find many alternatives to take photos of a video. There are some very interesting programs that allow us play the video frame a frame, an ideal system to capture the frame we want with a quality image. We are going to see three options: one "from the house" that Google tarred us, another to achieve somewhat better results (VLC), and finally a third of professional quality (Adobe Premiere):
Google Photos
This is a resource that will serve us both on a PC and on a mobile phone. Google Photos It comes already integrated into Windows, so you don't need to download it anywhere. This program offers many video editing options, including extracting single images from them. This is how you do it:
- The first thing we must do is open the video in the application Photos.
- Next, we play the video until we reach the frame we want to extract and press the pause button.
- With the image stopped, we go to the tab "Edit and create" displayed at the top right of the screen.
- In the next menu that is displayed, we select «Save photos».
- A screen opens to edit the video, where we select the option “Save a photo”.
VLC Player
We have already talked about the virtues of this player in a previous post. Among other things, we must highlight the considerable number of formats that VLC Player you accept. In addition to taking a photo from a video, it also allows us to get a gif. And all for free. Is that how it works:
- To begin, we must open the video with the player.
- Then we play the video until we find the image we want to capture and we press pause.
- With the key combination Shift+CapsLock+S the image will be saved in the gallery.
To achieve a higher quality of the captured image we can use the advanced controls of VLC Player. These functionalities will allow us to advance in the video frame by frame or play it more slowly, among other things.
Download link: VLC Player
Adobe Premiere Pro
But to take photos of a video with high quality and achieve a professional result, one of the best alternatives is Adobe Premiere Pro. It is true that its use is somewhat more complex than that of the options that we have presented above, but the result is infinitely better. These are the steps to follow:
- We open Adobe Premiere Pro and we play the video until we reach the image we want to extract.
- Then we click the button "Export frame".
- Next you have to assign a name to the frame and press "To accept".
- Finally, select the output format (JPG, TIFF, PNG...) and press "Save".
Adobe Premier Pro is available from 25 euros per month.
Link: Adobe Premier Pro
mobile phone applications
Screenshots of a video can also be taken from a mobile phone, although the quality of this photo will always be much lower than what we will get through PC software. We are not talking about the options within the video recording function of the smartphone, but about specific applications. We are going to see some of them, both for Android and iPhone.
Video to Photo Converter
One of the best applications for Android mobiles. The interface of Video to Photo Converter it is simple and very easy to use. Plus, it's free. This is how we should use it:
- We open Video to Photo Converter and, in the start menu, press "Select" to search for a video in the gallery of our mobile.
- We select the video, which will be exported to the application.
- From the application interface, where various editions can be made, we play the video by choosing the frame that we want to convert into a photo.
- Finally, click on the button «Shutter" (it is at the bottom), tars which the photo will be saved in the gallery of our device.
Link: Video to Photo Converter on Google Play
Video to Photo – Grab HD Frame
If it's about extracting images from a video using an iPhone, Video to Photo – Grab HD Frame It is one of the most used and most recognized apps. It works very well and, just like the Android app we discussed earlier, it's very easy to use:
- First we run the app on our iPhone Video to Photo – Grab HD Frame.
- After select the video and play it, stopping at the frame we want to capture.
- To finish, we capture the image, which will automatically appear in our gallery.
Link: Video to Photo – Grab HD Frame on App Store