Photo from a video frame - advice needed

Here's the situation:

 

The bride and the groom are coming out of the church. The table with a wicker basket is on the steps by the

church's entrance. The basket contains two white doves. I focus my camera on the basket and as the bride and

the groom walk down the steps shoot continuously. I have shots of them walking down the steps, coming up to the

basket, opening the basket, then two frames with the videographer's shoulder. The videographer stepped right in

front of me at the most critical moment. The couple really wanted that shot, and I don't have it. They are an

incredibly nice couple, probably one of the nicest clients I have ever had, and I really don't want to disappoint

them. I want to ask the videographer for an uncompressed video clip of the couple releasing the doves and try to

extract photos from the frame. He was shooting in DV format.

 

Does anyone know of a service or software that could convert a low-res frame into a high-res image - either by

extrapolation or by making a small print from the frame and scanning it on a drum scanner.

If something is low-rez, then it will stay low-rez until the end of time I'm afraid...

 

You 'might' be able to get something usable from the videographer - but only for the smallest of prints. If he was shooting MiniDV, I've tried this myself, but that stuff is compressed before it's recorded and will almost certainly just look like a video still. If the guy was shooting HD, depending on what kind of HD with what kind of camera, your odds may improve, but I have not tried the latter, so I don't know.

 

On the other hand, on the slim chance you get something it might be worth a look, and depending on the couple they may appreciate the effort.

 

If you can draw, maybe get the still from the videographer and do a sketch of the scene for them.

A video grab won't give you the same quality even if if it is in DV format. You may be able to get a half-decent 4x6 print but tha's about it. That's why I put in my contract that I am not resposible for any missed shots due to intereference from the videographer.

Did the videographer block the main part of the image or just the foreground/background.

If it is the latter, you may be able to reconstruct a good image for your clients.

It may be helpful if you can post a "bad" image here.

Extensive Photoshop work can be costly, though.

A frame from Mini-DV is typically a 720x480 non-square pixel image compressed using 4:1 JPEG with some color-space reduction. Converting to square pixels will give you a 640x480 image. It may have interlace artifacts that you need to remove (thankfully most post-processing programs have a filter for that).

 

So, the best you hope for is a 640x480 image with minor JPEG artifacts. If it's clean and clear, you might be able to get a decent 4x6 (or *maybe* a 5x7) from it, but beyond that would probably be pushing it.

 

In any case, I'd suggest talking with the video person asap in case he deletes the original DV files after s/he's edited the footage down and converted to MPEG for DVD (which is really low-quality).

Another trick would be to use a sequence of multiple video frames in the album... like a film strip of thumbnails... the 640x480 resolution would probably be fine for a series of small 2"x3" images on an album page.

 

I did a quick Google Image search for these (no-wedding) scrapbook examples...<div></div>

another example...<div></div>

Apologize to the couple for missing the shot. There should have been better communication between the videographer and the

photographer. Don’t be a jerk and blame it on the video guy unless the two of you worked out a plan and he reneged, he was just doing

his job..

 

 

Let the couple ask the videographer for a still frame, he’s probably more likely to reply favorably. Let them explain the situation and the

videographer should want to make the customer happy.

 

 

If the video is standard def DV, the best you can hope for is 720x680 resolution. Even if it is Hi-Def, you are still talking about 2

megapixels tops. It could be included in a spread in the album, but consider yourself blessed if it makes it up to 5x7 and still looks good

(it’s possible – just don’t bet on it). Sorry, this isn’t CSI, you can’t get the license plate of a car out of the reflection of someone’s eye

who’s picture was taken with an OTUC.

 

 

I’ve seen a lot of people in this forum be jerks to videographers, and that’s why they are jerks right back. Photographers and

videographers are BOTH hired to do a job and there is no reason why they can’t work together. I’ve played both roles and good

communication is extremely important.

"I’ve seen a lot of people in this forum be jerks to videographers, and that’s why they are jerks right back. "

 

Maria, that's really sort of a sweeping generalization, to say that because some in this forum are jerks to videographers, that it's the reason they're jerks right back. It may be the reason SOME act like jerks, but can't be said for all videographers in all cases. There are jerks in ALL walks of life, and for a variety of different reasons.

 

I've had my issues with videographers, but have never acted like a jerk to one, and so far, have never had one act like a jerk to me. Some do seem to step on toes more than others. The one I worked with this weekend clearly knew the job I was there to do, and for the same reason as this thread was posted (and the same reason a video frame can't replace the missed shot), the photos take precedence, and told me up front not to worry if I get in his shot. I made every effort not to get in his shots.

A better option would be to see if any guest captured the release from a side position A mediocre jpg would still give you some options even going B&W to have a sense of the release.

 

Ask the couple. People tend to email them images from the big moments of the day.

 

Brooke

Maria,

 

I wasn't being a jerk to the videographer - both of us were doing our jobs. Besides, sometimes s**t just

happens. I think I found a solution - I'll ask the videographer for an uncompressed clip of the bride & groom

releasing the doves, pick out the best frame, make a small print - 3x5 or 4x6. I found a place called drumscans

(http://www.drumscans.com/) - you can send them a small print and the'll drum-scan it and return a 200 MB Tiff

file. One of my assistants used them in the past for his class work - he showed me a 16x20 print that he made

from a drum-scan of an old 4x6 image. Even though the fine details were missing from the large print, it still

looked pretty decent.

 

As Maria pointed out, this is my fault for not communicating better with the videographer. Besides, this couple

is one of the nicest clients I've ever had and I don't mind going the extra mile to fix this for them.

Dmitriy, you can try the drum scan idea of yours, but it's important to remember that a single video frame will not be anywhere CLOSE to the resolution you can see in a 4 x 6 print. And, once you output a still from from DV video, you can encounter a whole host of other issues. Blur induced by a combination of camera movement and the slow shutter speed of normal running video can render many of the viable frames slightly blurred. You can see this as you go frame by frame through the video. It's also important to understand that NTSC video is 30 frames per second, and 60 fields per second. It's an interlaced video format, and for every frame you output, you're only getting half the lines of resolution. NTSC video "paints" half of the horizontal lines with each field, and there are two fields per frame, within those 30 frames per second. So, you'll need to open the image in Photoshop and de-interlace the image, which is found under Filters/Video/De-Interlace. This filter "paints in" the missing horizontal lines through interpolation.

 

So, the best you can do is run the still through Photoshop, de-interlace it, and from there, treat it like any other digital image, only it will be really low quality. Printing it and scanning it with a drum scanner from there may not gain you much, but you're welcome to try it, and let us know how it turns out.

Just a thought, but, why not find some good images of a couple of flying doves and photoshop them in? This isn't news photography where you can't fake details. This is about creating images. Personally, I may do something like that and then happily inform the bride and groom of how I saved the image after Mr. Video accidentally blocked the shot.