Option 'Add Freeze Frame' is missing from menu.......HELP please

You can access the original image by right-clicking on the thumbnail and choosing "Reveal In Finder". However, _my guess_ is that if you have made any changes to the image (such as brightness, contrast, cropping, etc.), the adjusted image will not be available for saving as a separate image within iMovie as it has not been rendered. Rendering only occurs when you "Share" the Project.

One option might be to do a screen grab. I've used this method in iMovie HD 6, as I was dissatisfied with the quality of still frames generated by that version of iMovie. You can use the application called "Grab" (Applications>Grab) or simply use the shortcut Command>Shift>4 (hold down the 3 keys together). This shortcut gives you a cross-hair cursor which can be dragged diagonally across the required image and gives you an excellent quality .png file. You may need to preview in full screen, although in HD 6 grabbing from the viewer gives great results, with stills arriving in the same dimensions (pixels) as the project.

John

Taking images from the screen will probably lower their resolution

Try the method I outlined (using Grab or the shortcut key combo). I think you will be surprised at the results. Play your movie full screen in iMovie (it doesn't have to be rendered), then use the key combo to capture the image after pausing playback.

I just did a test on a 960 x 540 movie by capturing (grabbing) a still frame from a full screen playback. The image produced was 1253 x 705 and was quite sharp. When opened in Preview I was able to make some adjustments to saturation, contrast and sharpness (other adjustments are also available if required). The image was equally as good as, if not better than, the same frame captured using "Add Still Frame to Project" from the Event in iMovie (which produced a 960 x 540 image).

You can also bring your "grabbed" images into iPhoto (or any graphics program) for further enhancements, although Preview does a very good job, albeit somewhat limited.

John

These screenshots are going to be rather large (..as I used Software Update to add the Magic Trackpad utility this morning, and that seems to have trashed my iPhoto and Graphic Converter, so I can't easily reduce these pics, I'm afraid, till I've fixed everything..) anyway, here goes;

(This is all in iMovie '09, version 8.0.6) ..I adjusted a clip within the Project Library, as you can see; I've changed its Exposure, Brightness and Saturation:



I then took a freeze-frame of that, by positioning the Playhead where I wanted it on the adjusted clip, and then Ctrl-clicking the clip and I choose "Add Freeze Frame":



Then, in the Finder, outside iMovie, I went to the 'Movies' folder, and Ctrl-clicked on the name of the Project, as John describes, and then chose the 'Stills' folder:



(..sorry that pic is so big!..) and then I copied that still image, and could do what I wanted with it.

So - for me, anyway - it is possible to create a Freeze Frame from a clip which has been changed or adjusted after it's been dropped into the Projects Library from the Event Library ..or am I missing something from your workflow, cappy..?

Hi David - welcome back!

Thanks for all that information, very descriptive, as usual. I think the problem for cappy lies with stills that he has created in iMovie. Normally, you can't do a "Freeze Frame" on these (which makes sense, of course). So, after making adjustments to the stills, the same issue prevails. I think your method requires making adjustments to the whole clip, then doing a freeze frame.

Note that, if you add a photo to the Project (as cappy has done), you can't then do a freeze frame on that photo. So, effectively you can't do freeze frames on stills, whether sourced from photos or video clips. Therefore, any adjustments to those stills can't then have a freeze frame applied to them, unless I'm missing something.

It seems to me that cappy would be better off making his adjustments outside of iMovie, say in iPhoto or any good graphics program (eg, Graphic Converter).

John

Message was edited by: John Cogdell

I said:

I think your method requires making adjustments to the whole clip, then doing a freeze frame.

I just tested this David, but couldn't replicate what you are seeing. I made heavy handed adjustments to a video clip by dramatically adjusting the red and green gain, so the adjustments were quite obvious. I created a freeze frame (which displayed the same changes) and then looked at it in the project's Stills folder in the "Package Contents", as you described. The still was in the original unadjusted form and did not display the colour changes I had made to the source clip before creating the still.

Hence, my conclusion is that the changes do not become "fixed" until the project is rendered (shared). However, the changes are, of course, evident in the viewer or when viewing full screen. Taking a screen shot from the full screen view produces excellent stills, as explained in my earlier post.

Possibly I'm misunderstanding what you are describing David. On re-reading your post, I think you are saying that even after making changes you can still create a freeze frame from an adjusted video clip. I agree with that - but these changes do not carry through to the still in Package Contents. The OP, cappy15, seems more concerned with saving changes made to imported photos - he can't create a freeze frame from these for use outside iMovie.

John

Message was edited by: John Cogdell - added last paragraph.

I think the issue here is that edits in iMovie are non-destructive. When you adjust a photo or video clip in iMovie, the adjustments are written into the project file. They are applied when you SHARE or render the file.

So the solution is to Share the movie using the Share menu, then get a freeze frame out of the finished movie.

Depending on what this was for, I might make a short new project for this purpose so it did not take very long.

Of course the freeze frames you get in this method will be at the resolution of your movie, so if you want to do any serious photo editing and preserve the original quality, do it in iPhoto or Aperture or Photoshop or Acorn etc.

..Sorry for the delay till this response: my Mac went peculiar after a software update, and I had to reconstitute it from backups, etc..

Yup, you're right, John: after testing some more I found that - as you describe - the adjustments hadn't "taken" on the freeze-frame, but were identical to the original.

Best practice appears to be as AppleMan suggests, below..

Thanks for the reply David. Hope your Mac is now purring along! Still waiting for the next iLife upgrade (so much for the rumours). 🙂

John