Making Stills from Video Tapes

[Abe-Nornes]

Charles, 

I've been skiing for a week, blissfully far from computers, so I didn't
have a chance to answer this but want to put in my two cents:

The advice given before was good. Start with the best copy possible, LD,
DVD, commercial tape, and down the line. Use a machine that can produce
high quality freeze frames, because it is far easier to find the precise
image you want on LD or VHS than grabbing it on the fly. Premiere is
probably the best software to use.

Three notes:

1) There is a low end route: Many or most Macs now have RCA inputs and the
capability of inputting video. Just look in back and you'll see them. You
can grab frames, sound, or moving images through these inputs. Unless
you've got a high-end model, you really can't use the moving image
(Quicktime) movies for much. However, using the free software called Apple
Video Player that comes bundled with these computers, you can capture
excellent sound or still images. The only problem is that if your VHS or LD
can't do perfect freeze frames, it takes many tries to get the image you
want (there is a slight lag between pressing the button and the actual
grab). I use this method all the time. Once you figure it out, you can make
stills in a matter of minutes. 

2) You'll get the best results from images that are still. 

3) I always take the still and clean it up in Photoshop. Even the best
frame grab can use a little tweaking with "Unsharpen Mask". 

Markus