Stills from Videos

We have a tree outside our bedroom window upstairs and in the mornings there are lots of birds from the family of Tits which flit in its branches.  I have always wanted to get some pics but they are so fidgety that it's impossible to get a good shot so I decided I would see if I could get some decent stills if I took video of them.

I have to say that by the time I got my act together it was way past their breakfast hour so I didn't get them at the best time.  My video camera takes HD video as well as standard which means you can get high quality video but it's also a pain to convert.  The standard mode you can watch in Windows Media Player.   Luckily I have Sony's Vegas Movie Studio so I imported the video in and tried various settings. Only the video settings of HDV 1080 1440x1080 gave a decent still picture and even this was not anywhere near as good as a similar picture taken with a DSLR.  If you zoom in the pixelation is quite clear.  However, if you're creating an arty type picture it is less important.

I need to give it another go because I really didn't get enough video and the birds were always obsured by a branch!  I didn't actually try taking a 'snapshot' which is also possible with this video camera.

Anyhow, here's a pic.  I changed the lighting levels, saturation and sharpened it slightly: