10 Minute Guide to High Quality Video Stills

2008-01-11T10:30:00.002-06:00

What do you do if you have a video of decent quality but want to make a promotional banner or advertisement of exceptional quality? A conventional frame grab certainly won't do - what you want is a high-resolution still that looks like it came from a professional photographer.

Sure, you could use a conventional frame grab and touch it up using expensive software like Photoshop, but even then the result simply won't be adequate. However, there is a solution. This tutorial will explore how to create a print-quality frame capture in less than 10 minutes by using Topaz Moment v3.4.

1. Download the software.
The latest version of Topaz Moment is available here. The 250-use full-featured free trial should last you long enough to finish this tutorial and complete any projects you may have in mind. When it finishes downloading, follow the instructions in the installation.

2. Examine the interface.
The Topaz Moment user interface uses the Media Player Classic code and retains many of the open source media player's features. It does, however, have a few differences. Here's a short breakdown of the UI:

1. Menu Items. Contains a host of options. For more information on these, please refer to the Topaz Moment User Guide.
2. Video Display. The video plays here.
3. Video Navigation. Standard media buttons with a few modifications. In order, these are: play, pause, stop, skip back, decrease speed, increase speed, skip forward, forward one frame, and back one frame.
4. Topaz Enhancement. "Save" and "Options." Although small, this section controls the video capture and enhancement.

As you can see, Topaz Moment v3.4 is very simple and intuitive to use. The user interface is essentially that of a simple but effective media player with a few more buttons that control powerful features. So, without further ado, let's go through a set-by-step demonstrative procedure where we change an unclean frame from a sample video into a high-quality still.

3. Open your video and find your desired frame.
There's a few different ways to open different formats of video.

1. If you have a DVD inside your DVD drive, Topaz Moment can play it directly exactly as a conventional DVD player would - menu, chapters, the whole enchilada. Your DVD is accessed by File -> Open DVD.... However, if you do this you won't have the option to step back one frame. If you would like the ability to navigate frames at will, you can go inside the DVD file and find the folder labeled "VIDEO_TS". You can then use File -> Open File... to open the individual .vob files contained within for full functionality. For more details, please refer to the Topaz Moment User Guide.

2. File -> Open File... will take care of pretty much every other video format. We'll use this option for the purposes of this demonstration.

After you open your video use the navigation buttons to find your desired frame. Pause the video so the raw unprocessed frame is shown. Then click the "Settings" button and go to the "Save Settings" tab.

You'll probably want to change these settings first. Choose a directory where you'll be storing the enhanced image files taken from your video. Specify a basename for the file and select how you want each image to be named. I personally like to keep it simple and let the filenames count upwards from 0001, but there's also the option to name the files according to the time captured.

You also have the option to change your preferred image viewer.

After that you may want to save the raw frame that you have pause by clicking the Settings button -> Enhancement tab, clicking "Save Raw Video Frame," apply it, and save the frame. I chose this one - you might want to keep it open in a separate window for reference.

The "Enhancement" tab is where the Topaz Moment parameters are set. Although, unlike previous versions, much of the process is now automated, the user still must enter a few settings for the best effect. It's important to note that the best teacher here is experimentation, as different videos will call for different settings. Here's a brief rundown of each parameter, as well as why I chose what I did for the image in question:

Frame Type. You almost always want this to remain on "Detect Automatically," unless you have a good reason. The software usually does a good job of determining the correct setting here.

Noise Reduction. The degree of noise reduction to apply to the resulting image on a scale of 0-100. I leave it at a default of 25 because the frame I want to capture is of a decent quality, although it still has a fair bit of staticky noise.

Sharpness. I set this relatively low because a higher setting would cause overshooting and make the image look unnatural. The edges in the raw frame are fairly well-defined, thus a high setting isn't necessary.

Auto Level and Auto Color. Essentially these are the degrees of "Contrast/Brightness" and "Color Depth," respectively. My raw frame is kind of faded so I use higher-than-average settings here, but not high enough to make the image look unnatural.

Zoom. Almost always set this at 2 or above, because Topaz Moment actually enhances the resolution of the image to fit the zoom. A higher setting will make the processing a lot slower, however.

Again, to get a good result you must be willing to experiment with these settings.

As for my results, I cropped an equivalent portion of my raw frame and enhanced frame to give you an idea of the difference between them. Click on each image to compare the complete raw frame and enhanced still:

Before (click for complete frame)

After (click for complete frame)

Good luck with your frame grabbing and processing!