In a past post we put QuickTime to work in order to resurrect the creation of still images from video clips. It was a semi-complicated process, but a very powerful and flexible one at that. But you may not want powerful. You just want easy. Here's easy, thanks to the 7.1 update. (You did update iMovie to version 7.1, right?)
Skim your playhead to any point in a video clip that you want to capture as a still image. Right-click and choose "Add Still Frame to Project" from the menu that pops up. iMovie automatically creates a still frame and ads it to the end of your project. (If you have a one-button mouse, hold down the Control key and click to get the same menu.)
If the image was created from an Event library clip, iMovie will auto-apply the Ken Burns effect. If it was created from a clip sitting in a project, iMovie will leave the Ken Burns effect out so your image sits statically in the frame. (This is pretty intelligent behavior. If I am creating a still from a project, I probably want it to be a freeze-frame of the clip I am working on, not a "Ken Burnsed" image.)
Now here's the really handy part. If you want access to the image for other purposes, like adding to iPhoto, right-click on the image that iMovie created in your project and choose "Reveal in Finder."
There it is, sitting in a folder that is hidden inside the project package file. You'll only get JPEGs, but these should work fine for most people. If you want more options for still image exports, go read my original post on this subject.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
About this site
You may be like me. You may need help figuring out how this new iMovie actually works, especially if you spent a lot of time in previous versions. Here you can find tips, information, and commentary all about the newest version of the flagship iLife application.
Labels
- * 7.1 (5)
- * How to (19)
- * Missing in Action (2)
- * Quick Tip (9)
- * Reader Tip (3)
- Audio (4)
- Camera (4)
- Commentary (6)
- Compatibility (4)
- DVD (3)
- Feedback (2)
- Update (3)
- Video (21)
Contact Me
See something missing? Email me with your questions, comments, or additions!
Blog Archive
-
▼
2007
(50)
-
▼
October
(10)
- Book for Sale
- Reader Tip: Use Shift-Arrow to set start and end p...
- What Every iMovie HD User Should Know About iMovie...
- How to recreate bad thumbnails
- Quick Tip: Play Around
- Quick Tip: Capture a still frame
- Quick Tip: Use the Fine Tuning Controls
- Quick Tip: Cut or Add Frames with a Keystroke
- Back in Action: Selecting Multiple Clips
- How to use QuickTime video effects
-
▼
October
(10)
About Me
- Aaron
- I am just a guy who started out hating iMovie '08. Deciding to embrace the future, I set out to learn how to do stuff in this new iMovie and thought I should document it along the way. All of my iMovie experience is nonprofessional and comes from an older iMac G5, so if I can do it, you probably can too.
October 16, 2007 at 7:16 AM
Can you edit the 'Ken Burns' settings on still frames? I found this a very nice feature of iMovie HD (06).
October 16, 2007 at 7:30 AM
@ Alex. You can! In fact, I much prefer the interface for doing this in iMovie '08. Basically, in the same window previewing your image you have two boxes, a green one and a red one. The green one identifies the start point and the red one identifies the end point. You just drag and resize the boxes to set the effect.
The only difference is that you can't have an image start or end out of frame, like in iMovie HD. The entire frame needs to be filled with at least some part of the image. In iMovie HD you could start with a black frame and have the picture move in.
June 3, 2008 at 1:13 PM
Thanks for this tip! Just so you know, the image you capture will be of the original source, without any formatting (cropping, etc) you might have done.
May 8, 2009 at 1:11 PM
Thank you so much, I am new to imovie, and am posting images for someone who is living her last days...
peace...
July 14, 2009 at 10:48 AM
Thanks so much!! I've been trying to do this for so long!!! :)
September 13, 2009 at 5:36 PM
Excellent Tip - this has been driving me mad !!!
February 23, 2010 at 7:35 PM
Thanks for the informative post. Of course time has moved on now and you might want to check out the video snapshot functionality in DV Kitchen. It has a purpose dedicated still capture module which allows you to snap multiple stills while the video is playing AND upload them to the web via ftp. Pretty impressive.
February 28, 2010 at 7:04 PM
thank you thank you thank you for finally posting a clear, easy to understand post about this for the technology challenged like myself!
April 11, 2010 at 11:14 PM
amen for this! I've been sitting here for an hour trying to figure the last portion out. I had everything up to the "Reveal in Finder" point. Thank you!
July 5, 2010 at 3:02 PM
_________♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥__________♥♥♥♥♥♥
_______♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥_______♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
_____♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥____♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
_____♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥_♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
_____♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
______ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ EZOCAM.COM ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
_______♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
_________♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
____________♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
______________♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
________________♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
_________________♥♥♥♥♥♥
__________________♥♥♥♥
__________________♥♥
████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
♥ WWW . E Z O C A M . C O M ♥ WORLD'S LARGEST FREE To JOIN NOW !! - 24 Hrs "LiVE" ViDEO CHAT SEXIEST SOCIAL HUGE COMMUNITY Site ! JOIN In The FUN NOW ! ★ http://WWW.EZOCAM.COM
★ WWW.EZOCAM.COM ★
HAVE YOU GUYS MISSED OUT ON INTERNET LARGEST Video CAM CHAT COMMUNITY SiTE ?!? IT'S FREE to JOIN NOW !♥ GUARANTEE to THRILL YOU if Not You must be a BANANA !! GO CHECK IT OUT at ( www.EZOCAM.COM )
♥ !Over 2 Millions Users & Growing !! MoreOver Lot of Really Attractive MODELS Online now 24 hRS 7 days ! -★ www.EZOCAM.COM ★
███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
July 5, 2010 at 3:17 PM
███████████████████████████████████████
─▀██▀─▄███▄─▀██─██▀██▀▀▀█─
──██─███─███─██─██─██▄█───
──██─▀██▄██▀─▀█▄█▀─██▀█───
─▄██▄▄█▀▀▀─────▀──▄██▄▄▄█─
████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
♥ >> MAKEON.COM << ♥ ONLINE LARGEST FREE To JOIN NOW - SOCIAL NETWORK DATING SITE MEETING NEW FRIENDS HAS NEVER BEEN SO EASY NOW !! ★ http://WWW.MAKEON.COM
★ WWW.MAKEON.COM ★
LARGEST ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING COMMUNITY SiTE ?!? IT'S FREE to JOIN NOW !♥ OVER 5.23 MILLIONS MEMBERS AND GROWING SO BE FAST DO NOT GET LEFT OUT NOW !! GO CHECK IT OUT at ( www.MAKEON.COM )
♥ NEVER BEFORE HAD MEETING NEW FRIENDS BEEN SO EASY ONLINE WITH SO MANY FEATURES LIKE BLOGGING , VIDEO CAM , VIDEOS SHARING , MUSIC ETC ... SIMPLY MIND - BLOWING !!! -★ www.Makeon.COM ★
███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
May 20, 2011 at 9:16 PM
Thank you!!! I've been online for hours and found your helpful tips page -PERFECT solution.
July 26, 2011 at 11:02 PM
hi I'm using imovie '11 v 9.0.2.
It seems to act differently to what you describe.
It has a Create freeze frame function but I can't find how to reveal it in finder once it has been created.
Can anyone help with this?
August 13, 2011 at 3:14 AM
Now this doesn't work - there is no reveal in finder for created still image in newer version of iMovie