FCP 6.0 How to Export Frame Image in High Resolution
 

Hey,

Anyone know how to export a HIGH resolution frame for possible poster and/or DVD cover from FCP 6.0. I tried but it seems like the resolution is really poor. I want a high quality HD resolution, like 720P. It seems to be exporting in a poor JPG file.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

D

If you export a still (let's say from the Sequence) using the menu choice "Export using QuickTime Conversion" and then in the file dialog box select "Still Image" and then click "Options" and select "JPEG" or "TIFF" you're going to get a still image of the identical resolution as the sequence you're editing. No more. If your time line is a lower res than the clip, do the export of the clip, not the sequence. But again, no better than the original.

You can do pretty good up-resing in Photoshop and other image processing tools, but the image is never going to be truly high resolution from an SD or HD video. Adding a tiny bit of sharpness helps too. But no matter how you slice it, SD and HD video are low resolution to start with. Using a frame grab for a substantial portion of a poster or DVD cover does not usually work out very well. Need high resolution? Try using some still images from a good digital camera if you happen to have them.

hey David,

Thanks for your reply. Shouldn't the resolution be the same, i.e., high if it is just exported as a frame? If you can blow up or project a HD film onto a big screen and it looks good, why wouldn't you be able to get a frame for a poster? Somehow that doesn't make sense to me, but then again, I am not an expert on this topic.

Thanks

Printed still images are not perceived the same as projected and moving images. Those 720 lines look great on an HDTV, but a quality photo has that many lines in an inch or two.

That 10 megapixel consumer digital SLR we read about probably has 3 or 4 thousand lines in each direction (more or less), and it isn't good enough to blow up much more than, say 16 x 20 or so, so imagine how much resolution you'd need for a poster-sized photo.

Just for fun I checked the specs on a couple of digital still cams. The Sony Alpha (10.2 MP) is 3872 x 2592 in its best mode, while the pro Hasselblad H3D-39 (39 MP) is 5412 x 7212 pixels. Dwarfs your typical HDV cam.

WOW! You learn something new everyday. Well, I guess the new RED camera is low resolution compared to still cameras then, =)