[HeartoftheNight]

Okay, I've heard people say that they took pictures from from their DVD's and movie trailers. Like they just clicked something and froze the picture and were able to get any shot they wanted or something? Am I competely clueless and you CAN'T do this or is it possible? And if so, what program do you need?

[LydiaB]

I'm not very technically minded myself; all I can do is tell you how I do it, but there's probably another way.

As far as DVDs go, first you need a computer that plays them and programme that lets you watch them, i.e., a player, and the rest is easy.

To select the shot you want, just pause the film and then click the Step Backward or Step Forward buttons on the player until you have Haldir, or whoever your squeeze is, looking all hawt and sexy.

How you capture the image depends a bit on the player you have. I can give you 3 examples of the players I use. First, I've got the Cyberlink PowerDVD Player, which has a very handy snapshot button. You just click it and it automatically saves the image to My Documents on the computer. You can download this player from the internet, but it's for money. Two free players that you can download are RealPlayer and Windows Media Player. As far as I can see, they don't have anything like a snapshot button, but, as with any DVD or image that you have on your computer, you can make a copy of the entire screen. After you've paused the movie or trailer, press "Print Screen" on your keyboard. This will copy the image to your office clip board. Then paste it into something like Microsoft Office Picture Manager and save it. It's a bit untidy, as you have the entire screen, so the tool bar and player skin as well, but you can always cut them off afterwards. There are lots of other media players, and some are more helpful than others in this area.

I hope all of this is more helpful than confusing

[HeartoftheNight]

Thanks Lydia for the help, but I still have a few questions.

[NancyBrooke]

Yes; while I also use Cyberlink Power DVD, once I've capped the screen shot I want - usually Boromir all snarly - I take it to Adobe Photoshop, but likely any graphics program would do.

In Photoshop, I Open a New Document, and by default it will create a document the size of what's loitering in the paste buffer (e.g. that cap you just nabbed), and then I just edit/paste, voila, there's my screen cap. Then I just save it as whatever file format I prefer.

Do you have a graphics program? Do you store snapshots, e.g. on your computer?

[HeartoftheNight]

Yeah, I have Photoshop, pretty recent edition, and I have Windows Media Player. So this should all work?

[LydiaB]

Having Photoshop makes it all a bit easier. If you're using "Print Screen" and Windows Media Player, it might seem a little disconcerting after you press the button, as it appears that nothing at all has happened, but the image has been copied to your clipboard. The clipboard is a sort of temporary storage space for something that you've cut or copied from a document. In order to be able to save that image permanently you have to paste it into another opened document, in this case, one in Photoshop according to Nancy's instructions.

Did it all work? Do let us know

[HeartoftheNight]

Okay, thanks so much everyone! Though I sadly wont know the results for a while because the DVD player is broken on this computer.

But again, thank you! I've been wondering about this for ages and now hopefully I can snap shots to my satifaction. Though I don't know if my computer will have enough memory....

[HeartoftheNight]

Okay, back on this subject again.

I just tried to make my first screen cap. I managed to copy the image from the player using the PRINT SCREEN option and then opened up adobe. I then pasted and I thought I was all set to go. But when I tried to move the file window (cause the pesky thing always appears at the 33% behind the tool pallette) I noticed the screen cap stayed in the same place while the file window moved around it. Weirded out, I flatted the image without trying to edit and saved it as a JPEG. Then I tried opening the JPEG and it was a black screen. So I go back, take the shot again, repeat the process and save it as a regular adobe file, again wit no attempts at editing. Again, black screen of death.

What went wrong?

I played the movie on RealPlayer. Pressed play and fast forwarded to the shot I wanted. Paused, printed screen and pasted. Did I do something wrong?

Help me, please!

[LydiaB]

I've been away for a while, so this thread is a bit old, but I was just wondering if you're all sorted now or if you still needed some help with this. Feel free to email me if you do

[Robbie]

The problem is that you are using a video overlay when dispalying the video (the video is drawn direct on the graphics card). Turn off hte "hardware accelleration" or "overlays" and try again. (Note - this may cause other problems, but you should be able to get the caps)