How to capture and extract still images from video

Posted on May 6, 2008 at 5:22 am

Wish you could take a frame right out of your video and save it as a picture? I have a bunch of videos stored on my computer taken from my digital camera with scenes that I would want to extract to still images. If you’re in the same boat, then read on!

For some reason, it’s pretty hard to find an application that extracts images from videos and that is free! I’ve been looking for one for a long time and I finally found one after reading a related tech blog.

ImageGrab is a free program that you can use to extract images from all kind of videos including AVI, MPEG, WMV, live video streams, un-encrypted DVDs and many others formats.

It’s pretty easy to use and works well! Also, the great thing about this program is that it requires no installation, just download and run the EXE file, so it won’t slow down your computer or add keys to your registry! That’s what I like to hear!

First you need to load a video into the program, so click the open folder icon at the far left.

You should now see your video in the window below along with the navigation keys at the bottom. You’ll also see the size of the video and the size of the image still at the top left.

If for some strange reason your video is upside down, which the author of the program suggests it could be because of the decoder on your system, you’ll need to press the Invert button, which looks like two arrows in opposite directions.

Now it’s time to actual grab a still image from your video! First set the folder where you want the pictures to be saved by clicking on the folder icon at the top right.

Finally, navigate the video until you reach the frame you want to grab. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard for precision. Now when you have the desired frame in view, use any of the buttons in the second group to extract the image:

F12:

or F5: Takes a snapshot without saving it to the disk.

or F7: Saves the previous snapshot to the disk.

or CTRL+C: Copies the snapshot to the clipboard.

I don’t really know why you would want to take a snapshot and not save it, but the option is there for those who enjoy that! That’s it! You have just captured a still image from a video! Now go post it somewhere so we can all see! Enjoy!

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» Filed Under Computer Tips

7 Responses to “How to capture and extract still images from video”

Chris W said on : May 6th, 2008 at 4:15 pm

Sorry man, but I have a way where most people don’t have to install anything. In Windows Movie Maker, pause on the frame you want to capture, then either up in one of the menus, or right below the movie, or both, is a little picture of a camera. Press that.

akishore said on : May 6th, 2008 at 4:23 pm

Chris, I just tried it out and you’re brilliant! I never knew you could do that. That is a super easy way to extract a still image from a video! And Windows Movie Maker is already on all Windows XP and Windows Vista computers.

Thanks a bunch!

Chris W said on : May 6th, 2008 at 7:09 pm

Thank you very much! I was very surprised when I found this out too.

Chris, 12

Ajay said on : May 7th, 2008 at 5:25 am

before this i am using nero player to capture images from video. now i will try movie maker as well as ImageGrab

akishore said on : May 8th, 2008 at 5:36 pm

Ajay, both are excellent ways to capture stills from videos. I actually like the Windows Movie Maker method better since I don’t even need any additional software!