I accidentally turned on Live Photos. I've got about a dozen of them. I'd like to choose the best frame from each one and keep only that frame. I know how to do this with photo Bursts, but how do you do it with a Live Photo? Thank you.
Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.2)
HI , you can select the key photos / still images on your iphone with IOS 11 (per below) and there is link with instructions above for doing this on a mac with high Sierra (11.13) installed (sadly new OS does not run on my old 2012 imac
Here is the link / instructions for doing on iphone (it is similar process to burst photos pick the image you like and turn on or off)
https://support.apple.com/en-hk/HT207310
Change your key photo
Want to use a different key photo than the one you see in your photo library? In iOS 11 and later, it's no problem. Choose from the range of frames that make up your Live Photo.
You can also toggle the Live Photo effect off when you tap Edit > 
. If you change your mind, just tap again in Edit.
This is actually a helpful post, not because it tells you how to fix it, but it acknowledges there is no solution.
I doubt there will be a fix, because of the way Live Photos are taken. Each live photo is recorded as a pair of only one high quality still frame and a low quality video. Any other frame you could extract from the video will be of a lower resolution and quality than the included still frame and Apple is trying hard to prevent us from using low resolution material. But the user Tip I wrote (- How to Extract Still Frames from a Live Photo in Photos for Mac ) will allow you to import the Live Photo as a video and to extract a different still frame, if the embedded high resolution still frame has been taken at an unfortunate moment.
It is a feature for people who want a short moving intro to their photo - obviously the movie portion can not be all high resolution photos as it wold be too large to use - a live photos is a short standard resolution video ending with a high resolution single photo - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207310
the phone has a burst mode if you want multiple photos in quick succession, that is not what a live photo is at all
If live photos are not what you want simply do not use them use single photos or bursts
LN
Very Simple as advertised
It is a feature for people who want a short moving intro to their photo - obviously the movie portion can not be all high resolution photos as it wold be too large to use - a live photos is a short standard resolution video ending with a high resolution single photo - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207310
the phone has a burst mode if you want multiple photos in quick succession, that is not what a live photo is at all
If live photos are not what you want simply do not use them use single photos or bursts
It it possible to choose a single frame but it will not be high resolution as only a single high resolution photo exists -- How to Extract Still Frames from a Live Photo in Photos for Mac
LN
Apple has online feedback forms for many applications and products (Apple - Feedback).
For feedback on iCloud you may want to use this form: Feedback - iCloud - Apple
Apple promises that all feedback sent in will be read, even if you do not receive a reply. You are welcome to post constructive feedback here in the forums as well, but it is not guaranteed that the developers will read each and every discussion, so your contribution here may go unnoticed.
The preview of High Sierra is here: macOS High Sierra Preview - Apple
If you scroll down, you see what will be new in Photos and for Live Photos:
Bring even more life to your Live Photos.
When editing a Live Photo, try the new Loop effect to turn it into a looping video that you can experience again and again. Try Bounce to play the action forward and backward. Or choose Long Exposure for a beautiful DSLR‑like effect to blur water or extend light trails. You can also trim, mute, and select a key photo for each Live Photo.
It will be possible, once you upgrade to macOS High Sierra in autumn. The version Photos 3.0 will bring the ability to edit Live Photos and to select key frames.
If you are not in a hurry, just wait for the next release.
See the preview: macOS High Sierra Preview - Apple
Bring even more life to your Live Photos.
When editing a Live Photo, try the new Loop effect to turn it into a looping video that you can experience again and again. Try Bounce to play the action forward and backward. Or choose Long Exposure for a beautiful DSLR‑like effect to blur water or extend light trails. You can also trim, mute, and select a key photo for each Live Photo.
With the current software you can not except using screen capture and the images other than the main one are much lower resolution - this explains how to do it with a low resolution image - How to Extract Still Frames from a Live Photo in Photos for Mac
Apple has announced a better capability i High Sierra which we hope should be released very soon - macOS High Sierra Preview - Apple
LN
Again why?
Here is a better way posted here several times - How to Extract Still Frames from a Live Photo in Photos for Mac
and with IOS 11 and High Sierra 10.13 you can do it correctly -- macOS High Sierra - Apple
LN
This is actually a helpful post, not because it tells you how to fix it, but it acknowledges there is no solution. Are there plans in place to rectify this? Especially useful when taking photos of children and pets.
The "Why" questions are alway so difficult, because Apple rarely tells us why 😁
But we can try an educated guess. Live Photos are typical for the iPhone. They are meant to be shared instantly from the iPhone and to surprise our friends and family with stunning shots. The ability to share over a cellular network requires a very small file size. So only one frame has a quality good enough to be used as a keyframe and we are stuck with this one frame. All other frames taken from the video will be of a very poor quality. The solution is to be very careful when taking the live photo. We will get that photo as the key frame, that we see, when we hit the shutter release button.
I prefer to take 4k video clips with my main camera to the iPhone Live Photos. For a 4k video all frames have a high quality, and I can pick any frame as the keyframe, since it is a video.
I also need to vent.
My wife , who is a point and shoot person had no clue about this feature, left it on for all her trip photos, the work this has caused to get the picture she really took extracted from this mess will take a lot of precious time and the image chosen by this feature is the out of focus off centre one!!!
Very disappointed you can't just open the LIVE (DEAD-head ) feature to extract the best.
Help
Did send copy to apple powers that Be
DrollAntois wrote:
This is a solution but the resolution of exported image isn't very good!
The problem is, that the video part of a live photo does not have any high quality frames. You have to very careful to take the Live Photo at the best moment, when you will get a perfect key frame.
Nothing is attached - to post an image click on the camera icon and attach it
what version of the OS and Photos do you have? If you start a video playing in Photos 2.0 and move your mouse in the movie frame that control bar will appear
LN
It would really be helpful if Apple were to provide some answer/disclosure on this point--sadly these forums are rather more neglected by them than they should be!
Moreover, whilst I'm really grateful for leonie's workaround, it's still ridiculous that Apple doesn't provide its own, more direct solution, just as it does for photo bursts.
This correction to the iPhone camera feature/program is clearly overdue!
Wouldn't it be wonderful if Apple included in one of the next software upgrades...?
At the most recent WWDC it has been announced that there will be more editing options for Live Photos on the iPhone. They will probably not be available directly in Photos on High Sierra, as Photos on the Mac is frequently one step behind the iPhone version, but we will be able to edit Live Photos on the iPhone before we transfer them to the Mac, at least. Since the developers are currently working on new options for Live Loops, it might be a good moment to write feedback to Apple about missing features.
Select a Single Frame from a Live Photo
